Following IOL's article of July 9, 2026 concerning a determination of the Pension Funds Adjudicator (PFA), former Robben Island Museum Chief Financial Officer Karabo Ramela responds.
Following IOL's article of July 9, 2026 concerning a determination of the Pension Funds Adjudicator (PFA), former Robben Island Museum Chief Financial Officer Karabo Ramela responds as follows.
I respect the Pension Funds Adjudicator and the value of reporting matters of public interest. But readers should know material context the article did not reflect: the determination is not the final word on the issues in dispute.
I have exercised my statutory right to seek reconsideration of the determination before the Financial Services Tribunal, where the matter is now pending. Separately, the circumstances of my dismissal remain before the Labour Court, which has not yet ruled on whether that dismissal was fair or lawful. I maintain that the dismissal followed protected disclosures I made about governance and financial management at the museum.
I served Robben Island Museum as Acting Chief Financial Officer from December 2022 and was formally appointed Chief Financial Officer in June 2023, a role I held until June 2025. During that period the museum received its first clean audit opinion from the Auditor-General in seven years and recorded two consecutive operating surpluses, after a prolonged period of financial and governance difficulty. For the 2024/25 financial year, following my departure, the museum received an adverse audit opinion.
