Durban won't act against officials, for now

TEN Durban councillors, several heads of department and municipal workers have been given a lifeline while the eThekwini council "goes through each and every item" in the Manase report, which found high levels of maladministration, fraud and corruption in the municipality. Heads were expected to roll after MEC for cooperative governance Nomusa Dube released the report on Tuesday.

But the council yesterday said it would not suspend implicated employees or take disciplinary action, as recommended by the forensic auditors, until it was clear on the proper procedure. "It is must be noted that the report has not found anyone guilty and it is therefore proper that different parties mentioned are given a chance to state their side of the story," city mayor James Nxumalo said. "But we must reiterate that we will take disciplinary action against officials and councillors that have been implicated."

The council declined to mention names, so Nxumalo did not comment on the allegations levelled at former mayor Obed Mlaba and municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe. The forensic investigation came after the auditor-general found that the city had irregularly spent R535-million and the Ngubane audit implicated Sutcliffe and three other officials in irregular housing contracts. Mlaba was alleged to have had shares in a company that nearly landed a R3-billion tender to convert the city's waste to energy. Dube said a company linked to Mlaba had allegedly expressed an interest in the tender and that was a breach of the municipal code of conduct.

The report claims that Sutcliffe, who controlled the city's R25.9-billion budget, contravened the Municipal Finance Management Act when he allegedly failed to promptly report irregular expenditure in dodgy housing contracts in writing to the mayor, the MEC and the auditor-general. It also alleges that Sutcliffe contravened the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act by not reporting fraud and corruption in a housing tender to the police. Sutcliffe, who is currently overseas, has not yet responded to the allegations. However, it was reported that he had said the allegation that he did not report corruption was "absolute nonsense".

The media report also stated that Sutcliffe demanded to know why Dube's sister was not implicated when "she was conducting business with the metro where she was an employee". Nxumalo said yesterday he was not aware of Dube's sister's business dealings with the municipality.

An ethics committee has been established to investigate allegations that 10 councillors had business contracts with the municipality. Nxumalo said 30 employees who had businesses with the municipality had already been disciplined and that the 123 officials implicated in the report would be investigated. "It must be understood that we are dealing with processes but those that are found guilty will face the full might of the law," he said.

Nxumalo said the report did not signal a crisis in the municipality. "It is, however, a wake-up call for us to arrest toxic practices that seemed to characterise the behaviour of our officials and councillors, disregarding applicable supply chain management processes," he said. "It is also revealing that if we address these loopholes within our systems of governance, the municipality could be on its way to achieving a clean audit before 2014. "We are therefore determined to root out the scourge of maladministration that has been afflicting us in recent years."

DA caucus leader Tex Collins said his party was part of the council but would continue to play an oversight role as the opposition party. "We will provide checks and balances as the opposition party. We have to hold the ruling party accountable and no one will stop us from doing that," he said.

Source: The Sowetan

Durban's R1,5m artwork

Will the controversial Durban elephants be freed, or will they be caged indefinitely? After a decision at the city's executive committee yesterday, at least one of the three elephants is to be saved to stand prominently at the new Warwick Junction interchange. But the fate of the other two remains uncertain.

Three months ago, work was abruptly stopped on the sculpture by South African artist Andries Botha of the three elephants, allegedly by an ANC bigwig, and a report was ordered to establish who had commissioned the R1,5-million artwork. ANC officials were unhappy with the choice of animal, which appears in the logo of the opposition IFP.

Now the municipality is expected to investigate the feasibility of introducing the four other animals in the famous Big Five at the same spot. Acknowledging the "embarrassing" debacle over the continent's most famous animal and its links to the IFP, the city's executive committee finally decided to resolve the controversy.

Deputy mayor Logie Naidoo was backed in his recommendation to "support the project and enable the work to continue, but only with one of each of the Big Five, not just the elephants".

Botha said yesterday that he had been asked by city manager Dr Michael Sutcliffe not to comment on the issue. He said he would see the city manager today. Botha said earlier that the city had paid about a quarter of the R1,5m and, until he had been paid in full, he jointly owned the elephants with the municipality.

There were protocols that needed to be followed when artworks were purchased, he said. Intellectual property rights were involved and the artwork could not be bought and then destroyed At a council meeting, it was revealed that the elephants were part of a larger landscaping initiative at the Warwick market and that other animals would be created. While the decision was supported, opposition parties were concerned about:

# How much extra cost may be incurred.

# Who was expected to pay for it.

# What would happen to the two other elephants.

# Was space and money available to put in the other four animals.

"Seventy-eight days have already passed; what charges will there be and who will pay?" asked the MF's Patrick Pillay.

The DA's Tex Collins said that regardless of who had initiated the project, city officials had gone "across their boundaries" to stop work that was being paid for by the national Department of Transport.

Sutcliffe will discuss the recommendation with the artist. Details of the costs and the inclusion of the other animals will be discussed and a second report will be presented to the city's top officials for a decision. "I took the decision to stop the elephants because neither I nor the mayor knew of the project," said Sutcliffe. He added that he was certain that the city officials who had undertake the decision for the landscaping had "had good intentions". "At that stage individuals and the media had politicised the issue," he said.

The IFP's Thembi Nzuza hit back at the elephant fracas, and said the IFP was "embarrassed"" "We were just dragged into this, yet we didn't even commission it. It's just a case of somebody who deep down in their heart who hates the IFP." Nzuza said she did not like the way the situation had been handled, and in fact, the IFP could do with an apology.

Source: IoL

Mpisane contract stays under wraps

Attempts by The Mercury to uncover the truth about the affairs of high-flying La Lucia couple S'bu and Shawn Mpisane have been met with obfuscation and silence. Yesterday, we exposed shoddy workmanship in the building of low-cost housing in Umlazi, and possible irregularities in the payment of at least R219-million from the eThekwini municipality to their company, Zikhulise Cleaning, Maintenance and Transport. But attempts to establish how the contract was secured by the company in the first place have been stymied by a lack of communication by the provincial Human Settlements (housing) Department.

The contract - worth R300m in total, according to municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe - has been administered by eThekwini municipality and payments were made through eThekwini accounts.However, The Mercury has learned that the project was commissioned by and originated with the Human Settlements Department, which initially contracted a Section 21 entity, the Umlazi B10 Housing Company, to build 4 500 units. After the apparent failure of the company to deliver, the project was contracted to Zikhulise. Requests for clarity regarding the procedures followed in re-awarding the contract remain unanswered.

There is also confusion around the status of the project. Sutcliffe said it had been completed in mid-December, yet many houses were incomplete and others were falling down. According to Sutcliffe, payment was only made after "professionals" had certified the work done. Umlazi councillors and residents said Zikhulise had not resumed work in the new year, apparently because it had not received any payments since October. This was despite documentary proof in The Mercury's possession that about R50m was paid out in the last three months of 2009.

On Wednesday, Shawn Mpisane, registered owner of Zikhulise, promised to explain the situation to The Mercury. But contacted on Wednesday night, she said she was entering a three-day slimming programme and would thereafter discuss the matter. Earlier, Dominic Ntsele, a PR man, phoned, saying he wanted to establish The Mercury's motive for writing about the Mpisanes. Ntsele, one of the last people to spend time with mining boss Brett Kebble before he died in a hail of bullets, said he was acting on behalf of "concerned loved ones" of the Mpisanes. He refused to reveal who they were.

Since Monday, the provincial Human Settlements Ministry has promised to respond to questions relating to the Umlazi development. While officials were helpful, the division which should have provided information had still not done so at the time of going to print on Wednesday night. Sutcliffe also failed to return calls.

Source: IoL

The mystery of Mpisane millions

Three weeks after receiving R30-million from the eThekwini municipality, high-flying Durban couple S'bu and Shawn Mpisane have halted the completion of RDP housing projects in Umlazi, apparently because they have no money to continue the work. The R30m paid in December was part of a series of electronic payments amounting to about R219 million, which the company received from eThekwini last year. The last payment of R4 785 720 was made on December 14, two weeks before their A-list, bling party on New Year's Eve. That's when the big-spending former metro officer and his politically connected wife dazzled friends at their luxurious La Lucia home.

Top-end whiskies and champagne flowed, while they splurged on special thrones and showed off their new Rolls-Royce. Guests included national police commissioner Bheki Cele. While Shawn Mpisane, daughter of the late ANC local councillor Dumazile Flora Mkhize, is the one who was granted the Umlazi housing contract, it is her husband, Wiseman Sibusiso (S'bu), who has been the focus of media attention. While working as a metro police constable, with a salary of less than R15 000 a month, Mpisane raised eyebrows by arriving at work in a Lamborghini and living in a R17 million mansion. This week, he made headlines of a different kind when The Mercury's news editor, Philani Makhanya, laid a complaint of intimidation against him. The alleged intimidation came after Mpisane became aware The Mercury was investigating his affairs.

On Monday, workers of Shawn Mpisane's Zikhulise Cleaning, Maintenance and Transport company, as well as those employed by sub-contractors, in Umlazi, were told to go home because the company allegedly had no money to continue their work. An estimated 1 300 people, many from Umlazi, and their families have been affected, according to Ward 79 councillor Sthenjwa Nyawose. Mpisane had told him her company had received no money from the municipality since October. Despite repeated attempts to interview Shawn Mpisane, she failed to return calls to The Mercury as promised. As a result of the job and housing uncertainty, Nyawose described the situation in the township as "volatile but calm". "We are very angry, the councillors of Umlazi are fuming," he said. "As we speak, the project is not going on because the contractor has not been paid. The problem is the municipality is not coming up with the money."

Contradicting this, however, documentary records in The Mercury's possession indicate that more than R50 million was paid by the municipality to Zikhulise in November and December. Municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe confirmed a total of "around R300 million" had been paid to Zikhulise over 18 months and said the project had been completed in mid-December. The project involved building low-cost cost RDP houses on 4 500 sites in Umlazi B10, KwaMgaga and Umlazi Infill.

The Mercury has documentary proof that a total of R219 930 939 was electronically transferred from eThekwini to Zikhulise in 2009. In December alone, four payments totalling about R30 million were made. Nyawose said thousands of houses were still under construction or to be built in Umlazi, contradicting Sutcliffe's statement that all work had been completed. Sutcliffe explained that some funding was usually paid in advance. "Contractors submit claims based on work done; the city's professional team verify that and if such work has been done, payments are then made," he said. Like Nyawose, Sutcliffe confirmed that the development was initially a provincial project which the municipality was asked to take over. "In August, 2006, eThekwini municipality resolved to take over the project and become the developer and further agreed that the professional team and contractors... be kept for the duration of the project."

But just months after construction, some of the houses were crumbling, The Mercury established during a field trip. The houses were not plastered or painted. Some had no toilets, taps, baths or showers. An eight-member family living in a leaking, three-roomed house said their biggest concern was how they would eat. Only two members of the family were employed, one by Zikhulise and the other by one of its sub-contractors. "Eish, school has started and we can't take the children to school because we have no money," said one woman. Another angry man said the houses were of a poor quality because workers were told to rush their work.

Source: IoL