Portia Loyilane was nominated by Eastern Cape Disability Economic Empowerment Trust. She attended the University of Fort Hare and has a  Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com.), Economics and Business Economics 1979 – 1982. She then obtained a Unisa Higher Education Diploma in 1988 and has a MPhil (Disability Studies) from the University of Cape Town. She served in the office of the Premier of the Eastern Cape as a Deputy Director for the Office on the Status of Disabled Persons and from May 2007- May 2014  was at the Commission For Gender Equality,  Eastern Cape. However this was not without much controversy. In 2010, the 2nd Public Protector Report on the Gender Commission details a litany of financial mismanagement and describes an organisation plagued by widespread maladministration. The PP recommended "The National Assembly needs to intervene as a matter of urgency to ensure that adequate steps are taken to restore the credibility of the commission and to enable it to fulfill its constitutional mandate."

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In May 2010, in an update to Parliament , the auditor-general painted a similarly bleak picture of the management of the Gender commission. "The instability in leadership at the commission is a huge concern and needs to be flagged as a high priority. The instability resulted in a lack of oversight, direction, monitoring and accountability, which directly resulted in the current financial situation, the auditor-general said. He said that the investigation of the commission had taken longer than expected "due to the magnitude of misconduct, irregularities and contraventions".

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In 2012, objections were made in Parliament to the speaker concerning the nomination of Portia Loyilane and Jane Hicks as Gender Commissioners. This is due to irregularities during their previous tenure as joint acting CEO’s and Commissioners. It was revealed that both Ms Hicks and Ms Loyilane were appointed as joint acting CEO’s while continuing to remain on the board of Commissioners, which constituted maladministration and improper conduct.

These objections were raised in a letter by the outgoing acting chairperson, Teboho Maitse, based on a 2010 report by Public Protector Thuli Mandonsela.

The report found the two Commissioners’ appointments to be “unlawful and irregular” on the basis that they were jointly appointed as acting CEO’s and Commissioners.

Key findings of the Public Protector report include:

• Both the CGE Act and the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) prohibit a member of the executive (in this case, the Commission) to be appointed as an acting CEO

• The PFMA also does not provide for 2 persons to be appointed as joint accounting officers

• The appointment of 2 Commissioners was therefore unlawful and irregular and constituted maladministration and improper conduct

• The expenditure that was incurred by the 2 Commissioners when they performed the functions of the CEO of the CGE possibly constituted irregular expenditure

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It was also alleged that two claimed travel expenses for their trips to the commission offices in Johannesburg from their homes outside the city. They undertook more than 17 trips in an eight-month period.  This was then found to be irregular expenditure by the PP

 

Portia Loyilane also is  Executive Director -Lebone Engineering (Pty) Ltd, t (provides professional services in the technical fields of power distribution, building services, transportation, energy management, mechanical and civil engineering services.), Chairman of the Board - TFM / Fabkomp Manufacturing.TFM was established originally in 1966 to specialise in truck customisation, maintenance and repair, and then entered the armoured vehicle production industry in the late 1970’s. SubsidiaryFabkomp (PTY) LTD is a fairly large manufacturing company that manufactures products for the Automotive and Engineering industry. The company has steel press shop and manufacturing, a Non Executive Director of the National Lotteries Board and Non Executive Director of LARIMAR Holdings .The Larimar group is a diversified group of companies with interests in the passenger transport, freight transport, vehicle manufacturing, vehicle retail, engineering, manufacturing, financial services and property sectors.

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