The qualifications of Johannesburg Road Agency (JRA) CEO Tshepo Mahanuke have been called into question.
Mahanuke claims to have a master’s degree that doesn’t exist and demands his staff to call him ‘Dr’ Tshepo Mahanuke on the strength of an honorary doctorate you can purchase with a small donation.
His CV claims he holds a master’s degree in “competitive intelligence” from ACI College, Harvard Business School.
But Harvard does not offer such a master’s degree and the ACI or Academy for Competitive Intelligence is a separate college.
The JRA appointed Mahanuke in August after “diligent” checks and verification by an agency it wont name. Mahanuke replaced Republic Monakedi, a twice-failed Limpopo municipal manager who quit as Johannesburg’s 12,000km road network went from bad to worse.
The city still has an average of 45,000 potholes even after the private sector’s Pothole Patrol fixed more than 50,000 potholes in the past 18 months. The number of potholes is calculated by resident reports and by JRA visual inspections.
Potholes are dangerous and cause accidents especially in the rain. The Pothole Patrol has calculated R650 million in pothole damages to car since it started counting.
“The status of the road network ranges from poor to very poor and requires rehabilitation and reconstruction,” according to the latest JRA quarterly report. The report says 68 city bridges need urgent repair.
Senior staff members at JRA said told Daily Maverick that Mahanuke insists that he should be called ‘Dr’; in his resume, while he calls himself “Hon. Dr Tshepo Mahanuke. If memorandums sent to him are not addressed to ‘Dr’, he sends them back, saying his academic qualifications are not being respected by staff.
702’s Bongani Bingwa asked Mahanuke to explain his qualification at the Trinity University of Ambassadors.
“I distance myself from that I never said that. I never went to bible college I distance myself from the comments being said.”
He was asked about his degree. “I have a degree, and it’s actually placard online.
Mahanuke said a media conference is planned for Friday where he will give more details on his qualifications.
Source: Business Tech, Eyewitness News, Daily Maverick, image from Twitter: @EmpowaworxEvent