City Hall insiders are worried that a damning report which implicates top bosses within Makana Municipality in alleged corrupt activities might be declared null and void.
City Hall insiders are worried that a damning report which implicates top bosses within Makana Municipality in alleged corrupt activities might be declared null and void.
They say this could be done in an effort to protect two local ANC leaders. Senior officials in the embattled municipality have indicated that Council may consider the Kabuso forensic audit report on Makana Municipality invalid.
This is because, the sources say, it was not sanctioned by Council. Mandisi Planga, who was the acting municipal manager at the time, commissioned auditing-firm Kabuso to conduct an independent forensic investigation following the disappearance of former municipal manager Pravine Naidoo's personnel file and the payment of Naidoo's legal fees.
According to sources, there was no Council resolution commissioning the report and this may see it declared invalid. Meanwhile, both Mayor Zamuxolo Peter and speaker Rachel Madinda-Isaac remain untouched, despite allegations of their involvement in Naidoo's unauthorised settlement bid last year.
In November last year, Grocott's Mail revealed that the Speaker deliberately signed a R3 million settlement to Naidoo on behalf of the Makana Council without their consent. Former Local Government MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane had deemed the settlement agreement as "misrepresentation of fact that is not based on law" that was "purely meant to prejudice Makana Local Municipality".
But the ANC is adamant no one in Makana is receiving political protection. In an interview with Grocott's Mail, Sara Baartman ANC regional secretary Scara Njadayi rubbished claims that the ANC is protecting their members in Makana. He said the organisation would act only if there were proof of corruption by their members in Makana Municipality.
"There is no basis at the moment other than the leaked Kabuso report, which we have seen only in the media. We cannot act on that until the report is sent for our attention," said Njadayi. When asked if the ANC was protecting Peter and Madinda-Isaac, because they were implicated in the Kabuso report, Njadayi denied this. He said if anyone was implicated in corrupt activities the organisation dealt with them.
"There is an Integrity Committee in the organisation which is meant to deal with any of our members tainted, or who have connived in corrupt activities," he said.
"Even so, the committee will give a fair opportunity and not victimise anyone who is implicated to explain themselves.
"So far there is no such [allegation]. We are yet to receive the report," Njadayi said. He said as the region, they are calling upon national and provincial government to conduct a human resource audit of all employees in Makana Municipality. This follows the recent decision to place the embattled institution under administration.
"We want an investigation to be conducted to see if proper recruitment and selection processes were followed when appointing officials in Makana and whether employees in various positions have the necessary qualifications and experience in those positions.
"There must also be investigations into all municipal projects and their budgets," Njadayi said. A furious Madinda-Isaac told Grocott's Mail she would not comment on anything that had not been tabled to Council, before referring questions to municipal spokesperson Yoliswa Ramokolo.
Ramokolo said the Kabuso report, which reveals shocking details about the state of the municipality, was not yet tabled in Council.
"We cannot comment on leaked information," Ramokolo said.
"We don't know when the council will sit, but we will comment or the Kabuso report after it is tabled in Council. I have not seen it. I just saw the newspaper reports," said Ramokolo. Attempts to get comment from Peter had not been successful at the time of going to press.
The Regional Executive Committee of the ANC, according to Njadayi, will deploy experienced REC members, Sicelo Gqobana (former MEC of Local Government in the Province), Deon De Vos (Speaker of Cacadu District Municipality) and Vukile Balura (former Mayor of Ndlambe and current Cacadu Mayoral Committee Member) to work with the local ANC leadership.
He said their brief would be to ensure political stability.
They would be expected to report to the REC monthly, Njadayi said.
