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

New eThekwini mayor pledges change

James Nxumalo was announed mayor of eThekwini municipality yesterday. It will not be business as usual in the eThekwini municipality and the days of councillors flouting the law by doing business with the very council they have been elected to serve are over. This was the promise from James Nxumalo, who was named the new eThekwini mayor at a press briefing at the ANC’s provincial offices in Durban on Sunday.

The ANC also announced the first citizens of 10 other KwaZulu-Natal municipalities. However, the names of other political office-bearers who will take up prominent positions, such as the deputy mayors and speakers, at ANC-controlled municipalities in KZN were not revealed. Outgoing mayor Obed Mlaba, who has been at the helm of eThekwini for 15 years, will officially hand over the R2.3 million mayoral chain to Nxumalo next week. He will take the reins as mayor just two months after Co-operative Governance MEC Nomusa Dube announced an unprecedented forensic investigation into the city’s financial affairs. Dube said she would receive preliminary feedback from the forensic audit firm Manase and Associates, which was tasked with investigating allegations of fraud, maladministration and corruption in the city. “I’m not expecting a final report anytime this month, but it will just be to look at the progress and to see whether there are any other issues that may have arisen from the investigation,” she said.

Nxumalo said it would be premature for him to make statements regarding the investigation, as processes were under way. “But I must say that we are going to be very strict this time. It cannot be business as usual, and we will make sure that we implement the code of conduct governing councillors, because councillors are not allowed to do business with the municipalities. We will be very strict in terms of the Municipal Finance Management Act,” he said. Nxumalo said councillors would be trained to understand that the law did not allow them to do business with the council. He said those who owned companies should resign from those companies “as a matter of urgency and declare their business interests”.

The ANC on Sunday announced that it was still engaged in talks with the NFP, aimed at forging a coalition, after both failed to secure governing majorities in 19 councils in the province. The ANC on Sunday announced Ester Qwabe as its Zululand mayoral candidate, but the party said this could change depending on the outcome of talks with the NFP.

ANC provincial secretary Sihle Zikalala said the outcome of talks with the NFP would determine the candidates for other key positions at eThekwini and other municipalities. “We have taken an approach that we will announce other positions after that engagement. That also goes for Zululand. We have announced our mayoral candidate in Zululand, but if talks and negotiations compel us to take a deputy mayoral position, we will determine that when we discuss with the NFP,” he said. Zikalala said the ANC would announce the progress of the talks today.

NFP leader Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi laughed off suggestions that she or any other member of her party would be appointed mayor of Msunduzi municipality, but said her party was open to talks with both the ANC and IFP. Makhosi Khoza, a front-runner for the eThekwini mayoral post, said on Sunday she would remain the party’s spokeswoman and MPL. – The Mercury

Don't sacrifice lives for profit, says Motsepe

No life could be "sacrificed" in the name of profits, mining magnate and businessman Patrice Motsepe told protesting workers at a ferromanganese smelter near Durban on Monday. Speaking to workers, who on Monday staged a protest at the Assmang smelter following Sunday's blast that claimed the lives of five people, Motsepe said: "There is no life that can be sacrificed in the name of profits or making money. I will not tolerate it."

Motsepe, who is the largest single shareholder in African Rainbow Minerals, which is a 50% shareholder in Assmang, said that the circumstances surrounding Sunday's accident appeared to be similar to an accident that happened at the smelter last year. Motsepe spoke to workers after meeting with the Assmang management as well as senior workers' representatives. The explosion and subsequent fire ripped through the number six furnace of the smelter shortly before 5am in Cato Ridge, about 60km from Durban. One person died at the scene while a further four died during the course of Sunday and Monday morning. After addressing the workers, Motsepe told journalist that he could not comment on the cause of the accident until the completion of investigations. "We are not representing shareholders' interests if there is no zero tolerance towards [poor] safety," he said. Following the blast, the smelter's six furnaces were shut down. Motsepe could not immediately say how much the shutdown was costing the company. However, even though the smelter had been shut down, the estimated 700 workers were still expected to report for work to ensure that they were paid.

KwaZulu-Natal provincial minister of social welfare Meshak Radebe and Durban mayor Obed Mlaba also briefly spoke to the protesting workers. Earlier in the day about 100 workers marched from the smelter to the Cato Ridge Country club with a coffin, which they then placed in the middle of a hall where a Labour Department inquiry into a manganese poisoning case at Assmang was being held. The inquiry had to be postponed and was resumed later in the afternoon when the workers returned to the smelter. The inquiry, headed by Vuli Sibisi, is investigating the alleged 40 cases of manganism caused by workers breathing in fumes with airborne manganese particles.

Manganism is acquired by over-exposure to airborne manganese and is a disease that affects the sufferer's central nervous system, leaving them with symptoms very similar to Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis. Assmang executive director, Brian Brookeman, was about to give testimony when the workers marched into the hall with their coffin. On Monday, the Labour Department announced that the company would be subject to a second inquiry that would investigate the cause of Sunday's explosion. Labour department spokesperson Zolisa Sigabi said "a full-scale government investigation is under way following yesterday's [Sunday] massive explosion. The inquiry aims at establishing the cause of the tragedy, including any possible negligence or flouting of occupational health and safety measures," she said. On Sunday she said: "Labour inspectors who immediately arrived at the scene have in a preliminary report indicated that it is suspected that a water leakage into furnace number six caused the explosion to occur."

Earlier, National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) spokesperson Mziwakhe Hlangani said that the company's engineers had ordered that the furnace be shut down before the explosion "after it was detected to have a water leakage". "We do not know how and why it was operated by the night-shift staff operators, because it was declared unsafe to put it [the furnace] in operation and we believe drastic steps after thorough investigations should be taken," Numsa local organiser Siphiwe Ntsele said. He said it was the second blast in nearly three months. He claimed that a worker had died on December 14 2007, in a similar blast.

Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana on Monday condemned the blast and vowed to "pull all stops in getting someone to account for the deaths and injuries" in Sunday's incident.

Source: IoL