South Africa

IN COURT

SANParks CEO forced to take special leave after sexual assault allegations

SANParks CEO forced to take special leave after sexual assault allegations
SANPARKS CEO Fundisile Mketeni Photo:Werner Hills/Sunday Times

Following complaints of sexual assault and common assault claims against him, the CEO of SANParks, Fundisile Mketeni, has been asked to take special leave pending a legal procedure.

SANParks CEO Fundisile Mketeni appeared in court on 11 May together with two other SANParks men and a woman, all facing similar charges. He has been temporarily replaced by Dr Luthando Dziba, who presently heads Conservation Services.

SANParks board chairperson Joanne Yawitch said that in line with SANParks’ commitment to ethical conduct and the seriousness of the allegations, Mketeni will have to step aside until the matter is resolved.

“The board views the allegations made in an extremely serious light,” said Yawitch, “and will allow the court proceedings to take their course and reach conclusions on the allegations.”

Her board would investigate whether the circumstances surrounding the allegations “led to any improper or illegal conduct which may affect the employment relationship”. 

Mketeni was formerly deputy director-general of biodiversity and conservation in the Department of Environmental Affairs. Before that he was chief operations officer at SANParks. He has 25 years’ experience in environmental management,

Dziba, who takes over from him in an acting capacity, is a highly qualified scientist with a master’s degree in agriculture and a PhD in rangeland science from Utah State University. He is also a research associate in the Department of Zoology at Nelson Mandela University and a specialist in plant-herbivore ecology. DM

Gallery

Comments - Please in order to comment.

Please peer review 3 community comments before your comment can be posted

X

This article is free to read.

Sign up for free or sign in to continue reading.

Unlike our competitors, we don’t force you to pay to read the news but we do need your email address to make your experience better.


Nearly there! Create a password to finish signing up with us:

Please enter your password or get a sign in link if you’ve forgotten

Open Sesame! Thanks for signing up.

We would like our readers to start paying for Daily Maverick...

…but we are not going to force you to. Over 10 million users come to us each month for the news. We have not put it behind a paywall because the truth should not be a luxury.

Instead we ask our readers who can afford to contribute, even a small amount each month, to do so.

If you appreciate it and want to see us keep going then please consider contributing whatever you can.

Support Daily Maverick→
Payment options

Every seed of hope will one day sprout.

South African citizens throughout the country are standing up for our human rights. Stay informed, connected and inspired by our weekly FREE Maverick Citizen newsletter.