Cape Town - Financial constraints, limited specialist labour, poor organisational culture, dilapidated buildings, a ballooning wage bill, a 32% vacancy rate, and a council divided over “bizarre” contract talks for the CEO are just some of the problems plaguing Iziko Museums.
Iziko Museums’ annual performance plan paints a picture of an organisation that is worried and whose management is at constant loggerheads with the National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union (Nehawu).
In a briefing to the arts and culture committee, Iziko Museum chief executive Rooksana Omar detailed the dilemmas faced by the organisation.
Department of Arts and Culture deputy director-general Mandisa Tshikwatamba said Omar was accused of racism by black workers, even though employment figures showed fair representation.
Omar led the rest of the presentation, which showed the museum’s cost driver to be the wage bill.
She said in attempt to drive the costs down, the museum had tried to delay appointments, reduce overtime work, and made baseline cuts, which have affected its deliverables.
Omar’s presentation showed that, among other weaknesses, the museum lacked collection storage, struggled to attract employees with museological experience, lacked funding, and had a high number of disciplinary issues, a poor workplace culture and buildings that were in poor condition.
Though Omar said they had managed to start the repairs of buildings, but they needed a lot of technical skills to fulfil their plans for the buildings.
Omar said the museum’s strengths were its reputation, its location in a thriving tourist city, and a leading research organisation, among other positive traits.
She said the museum faced a declining number of visitors and budget cuts stemming from general economic decline.
“In terms of departmental level staff, they believe they are not compensated fairly and we have not been able to give our staff a salary progression because of the fact that we offer our staff salaries within our annual subsidy and that limits our ability to give them salary progression,” Omar said.
Iziko council member Popo Masilo told MPs of a “bizarre” process around the CEO’s contract, which included an unnamed executive telling council members, who met for the first time on official business in 2020, that it was his sole “prerogative” to appoint CEOs.
Masilo said the council was also told seven days before Omar’s contract expired that it was coming to an end.
The post was advertised two years later. He said Omar referred the matter to the CCMA. Two legal opinions sought by the chairperson were not shown to the council.
“The legal opinions made it clear that the failure of the council to have signed the fixed-term contract with the CEO was done incorrectly and that if it goes to the CCMA, the council does not have any firm grounding to defend the matter successfully,” Masilo said.
He said the council was divided over the chairperson’s handling of the matter, while some members raised the CEO’s alleged dishonesty during the contract negotiations.