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Mbombela - The embattled Mpumalanga Economic Growth Agency (Mega) hopes to turn things around for struggling businesses following the appointment of its new CEO Xola Sithole.
Finance, economic development and tourism MEC Eric Kholwane announced Sithole's appointment on January 6, following the agency's former CEO Boyce Mkhize’s abrupt resignation from the agency last August, barely a year and a half into his five-year contract.
Mkhize scored a R4.4m golden handshake following his sudden resignation under a cloud of irregularities.
READ: Parastatal CEO gets R4.4m golden handshake
"Mr Sithole has been appointed with effect from 1 January 2015... The appointment of the CEO is an important step in ensuring the stability of Mega. The focus now will be on execution of the mandate of the organisation and consolidating its turnaround," said Kholwane in a statement.
Kholwane reiterated his view that Mega is a strategic entity that has a critical role to play in the growth and development of the Mpumalanga economy.
Major challenges
The new CEO admitted that just like all organisations, Mega faces both challenges and opportunities.
"My immediate task would be to understand these challenges and opportunities and the context under which they arose. To achieve that goal I will need to interact with a lot of internal and external stakeholders to gain their insight before drawing any conclusions of my own," said Sithole.
Sithole said executing the turnaround strategy is not something that an individual can do.
"I will also need the support of the board and the shareholder [the government], something I am pleased to confirm has already been pledged to me. I will also need to work with a multiplicity of stakeholders who share our common desire to see the province of Mpumalanga thrive," he added.
He said the key to building a successful development finance institution was to have clarity of purpose and a well-defined strategy to achieve that purpose. He said there would need to be alignment between the shareholder, the board and the executive management.
New CEO is key
The interim board's acting chairman Davies Mculu said one of the most important tasks that they had was to identify a fit candidate for the CEO position.
"[The CEO had to possess] the requisite skills and experience that could strengthen Mega and bring it in line with peer entities. We have confidence that we have found such a candidate in Mr Sithole," said Mculu.
According to Kholwane, Sithole has more than 20 years’ experience in development finance and investment.
He started off his career in development finance at the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) in 1994, where he spent more than nine years in various operational and executive roles.
In 2003, he was appointed CEO at the Small Enterprise Finance Agency (formerly Khula Enterprise Finance), where he worked for five years.
Since 2009, he has been an independent consultant and entrepreneur involved in corporate finance, management consulting, project management and consulting engineering.
