Police may be drawn into a high-level probe into Makana Municipality, as a provincial team is poised to take charge of the embattled organisation's affairs.
Police may be drawn into a high-level probe into Makana Municipality, as a provincial team is poised to take charge of the embattled organisation's affairs.
Describing a recent agreement by the municipality to pay municipal manager Pravine Naidoo a R3 million settlement as "extraordinarily odd", Eastern Cape Local Government and Traditional Affairs MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane said ongoing water cuts and Makana's finances were among the concerns that had raised the alarm in his department.
Qoboshiyane was responding to questions by DA Shadow MEC for local government and traditional affairs Dacre Haddon in a session of the provincial legislature on 29 November.
Regarding a question about the R3m settlement to Naidoo, Qoboshiyane said his department "had sight of the said settlement agreement". "It was signed by the Speaker when matters of this nature are ordinarily signed by the Executive Mayor; it requires the municipality to pay all Mr Pravine Naidoo's legal costs since November 2007 in the Labour Court and the Supreme court of Appeal," the response from Qoboshiyane read.
Qoboshiyane said it was "extraordinarily odd" that the municipality would be required to pay Naidoo's legal costs in a matter where his claim had been dismissed with costs.
That legal outcome suggested "that he is the one who was actually supposed to be paying the municipality for its wasted costs" Qoboshiyane wrote in his reply.
He noted that the settlement referred to the Mayor as the person authorised to accept the terms and conditions of the agreement.
"A statement that has been found to be misleading, as the agreement was signed by the Speaker on 24 July 2013…," Qoboshiyane wrote. "Based on the above highlighted points one is tempted to conclude that the said settlement agreement is a misrepresentation of fact that is not based on law, and was purely meant to prejudice the Makana Local Municipality," said Qoboshiyane in a response to the DA's question.
Qoboshiyane said his department had decided to intervene in the municipality – not only investigating the facts surrounding "this purported settlement agreement", but to also address other concerns.
"Among these being the recent water shortages; the non-payment of employee salaries; the general financial management and governance in the municipality…," Qoboshiyane wrote. "It is out of this process that an appropriate intervention plan will be put in place, which may not exclude the involvement of law enforcement agencies." He said a multidisciplinary team would be dispatched to the municipality.
He also said his department would support the Makana Council in its attempt to institute disciplinary proceedings against Naidoo.
