By Mbali Tanana
After several failed attempts to get the Makana Local Municipality to comply with regulatory bodies in their bid to investigate maladministration and corruption at the embattled institution, the Hawks, accompanied by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) successfully raided the municipal offices last Friday, following the recently approved proclamation by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Speaking to Grocott’s Mail during the raid, SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago said their abrupt visit was the last resort.
“The proclamation was gazetted about two weeks ago, but this process started a long time ago where we got people here complaining to us and giving us evidence which has led to us being granted the proclamation. In the main there were series of complaints about the bulk water sewerage that has been happening, money being spent but the project is never completed. There was also a lot of concern around tenders – a lot of tenders that are supposed to be going through a three-quote system, but that is not happening, especially of those from R200 000 and above. There were complaints about how tenders are being awarded to friends and families,” he said.
Kganyago said another reason they were in town was because they have been waiting on the proclamation, despite having had all the evidence.
“The Auditor General wanted documents from this municipality and they didn’t give them, our people when they were preparing for the proclamation, we wanted documents and we were not freely given and we realized that the people who are having these documents are the very people who are implicated, therefore we went to the magistrate and that is why we are here,” he said.
The SIU scoured through various departments within the municipality, with a special interest in the municipal manager’s office, finance directorate and human resources, helping themselves to stacks of files, laptops and cellphones, seizing these documents to relay to their team of IT and analytic experts who will screen mirror and duplicate for their in depth investigations prior to returning them.
In the absence of the municipal manager, who was alleged to be in Gqeberha for the day in a phone call heard by Grocott’s Mail, and the CFO, who was allegedly on her second day of leave, the unit was able to access their cabinet files and safes for documents and said they would make arrangements to seize their cellphones as part of their investigations.
EFF chief whip in Makana, councillor Mzamo Booysen, who was at the City Hall during the raid, said he welcomed the “much-needed” intervention by the SIU.
“This is such a relief. We welcome the intervention by the Hawks and SIU. Where there is smoke there is fire, it is evident that something is not going right within the municipality, so we can only trust the SIU to get to the bottom of it and root out the corruption and irregularities that hinder service delivery. Anyone who is found to be in this investigation must be brought to book and face the full might of the law,” he said.
Makana Citizen’s Front )MCF) PR councillor and Finance Portfolio Committee member, Phillip Machanick, said this intervention was long overdue. “It has been long overdue, this municipality has been in a terrible state for over a decade. I just wish they could actually investigate from as far back as 2014 and not just what is happening now and recent years, but to really root out the backdated rot that has also infiltrated into the municipality we see now,” said Machanick.
Phumelela Cita, who was among the onlookers, said it was an exciting time for her as a resident who has been suffering due to poor service delivery in the area. “I am so excited. I am so hopeful that things will be okay and that the criminals who are crippling our municipality will be arrested. We are suffering in this municipality and the officials are just too comfortable. Our problems are not just over the service delivery issues, but we have no jobs, no employment opportunities as we watch the officials eat municipal money with their friends and family,” she said.
