New estate board appointed
Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale announced the new board of the Estate Agency Affairs Board of SA (EAAB) on Thursday.
The 15 members, from various sectors including financial services, justice, the estate agency industry and civil society, were introduced by Sexwale at a media briefing in Rosebank.
The EAAB was dissolved by Sexwale last year after the Wendy Mechanik saga, and the resignations of its CEO Nomonde Mapetla and chairwoman Ina Wilken.
The EAAB was then put under administration. Lawyer Taswell Papier was appointed as administrator and was tasked with restoring stability to the board, facilitating good corporate governance and reporting back to Sexwale in six months.
The new board’s first and urgent assignment would be to appoint its chairperson and CEO, Sexwale said.
"The tasks facing the new board are not only challenging, but could also be exciting. The litmus test of the success of the new board will be premised upon good governance, integrity of their processes, credibility of their decisions, transparency as well as constant interaction with the members of the public," Sexwale said.
He also presented the resolutions of a summit held in Sandton in July 2012, at which 600 delegates representing 40,000 estate agencies deliberated on the challenges facing the industry.
The first resolution was that the Estate Agents Affairs Act needed to change. Sexwale said the act could be amended or repealed.
"Children were dying at that time [1976]. I don't think that act cared about real problems of housing for the future," he said.
Transformation also topped the resolutions at the summit.
Only five percent of the 40,000 real estate agents in the country were black, he said.
"This is unacceptable. Twenty years into this democracy it is unacceptable that our people are not included in this industry which governs a total of almost R5 trillion," said Sexwale.
He said he had mandated the Special Investigations Unit to investigate allegations against the board, following concerns raised at the summit about corruption in the industry.
The new board members are:
- Andile Ben-Mazwai, chairman of the Real Estate Business Owners of SA (Port Elizabeth);
- Jill Corfield, member of the executive committee of the Institute of Estate Agents of SA in the Natal Coast region;
- Leo Mlambo, chairman of the National Property Forum;
- Dineo Molomo, head of Henley Real Estate Centre-Africa;
- Ewaldina Porteous, director of Pam Golding Properties Margate franchise;
- Sikkie Kajee, chief audit executive at Telkom SA;
- Advocate Tshepo Maake, non-executive member of MaakeMogale Investment Holdings;
- Rhulani Marivate, founder and partner of Marivate Attorneys;
- Jabhile Mbhele, manager at the Financial Advisory and Intermediary Services;
- Mfanufikile Nsibande, senior analyst at the SA Reserve Bank;
- Bubele Damane, former CEO of the Central Energy Fund;
- Dr Kwandile Kondlo, board member of the SA Association of
- Public Administration;
- Portia Lebenya-Ntanzi, board member of the KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Board;
- Maletsatsi Maceba-Wotini, provincial director of the SA Red Cross Society; and
- Dr Fazel Randera, chairman of MediTech SA.