The R400K jog saga, sponsored by the Umngeni-Thukela Water Utility
A senior executive at the Umngeni-Thukela Water Utility got suspended for attempting to "save money"...
You know a story is wild when it starts with a water utility and ends with someone being frogmarched out of a building because of… a New York marathon.
Yes - this is a very real headline coming out of uMngeni-uThukela Water (UUW).
Here’s what went down.
The “marathon” that cost nearly R200K
Last year, supply chain management official Zandile Mhlongo decided to take a little work-sponsored jog all the way to New York City.
Now because this is government, we’re not talking economy class.
Her first-class flight alone cost more than R125,000, and her stay at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square added another R77,800 to the bill.
That’s a grand total of nearly R203,000. For context, that’s enough to fix a lot of leaking pipes.
Enter Sibusiso Madonsela, the UUW’s chief governance and compliance officer. He looked at the numbers, looked at the sponsorship policy, and said (quite reasonably) “Nope.”
Then CEO Sandile Mkhize swooped in like a corporate superhero (or villain, depending on how you look at it) and overruled him.
Mhlongo went to New York, probably had the time of her life, and UUW picked up the tab.
Fast forward to last week. Mkhize suddenly decides to suspend Madonsela for… wait for it… declining the sponsorship a year ago.
Madonsela was apparently frogmarched out of the building and accused of gross insubordination for turning down a request he didn’t have the “authority” to reject.
Meanwhile, whistleblowers are calling the suspension “outrageous” and “a witch-hunt.”
The Sunday Times recently revealed that this wasn’t the only pricey staff trip. There were others (to Dubai and the UK) costing close to R400,000.
In a weird turn of events, after all the spending sprees, UUW’s CFO has issued a memo announcing cost-containment measures because apparently, the water utility suddenly remembered that money is a finite resource.
Here’s the kicker: the man who tried to save UUW some cash is the one being punished.
The person whose trip cost almost a quarter of a million? No disciplinary action reported (yet).
It’s giving “Don’t save us, we like it expensive.”
This story is more than just a corporate drama with expensive plane tickets, it’s a reminder of how public entities can lose the plot, fast.
While ordinary South Africans are dealing with water cuts, someone’s sipping a cappuccino in Times Square… on the company dime.
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