City probe needed
THE recent furore around security upgrades to the mayor’s Pinelands residence has opened a hornet’s nest as the City falls over its feet to explain its unauthorised expenditure.
On October 2, Xolani Sotashe, Leader of the opposition ANC in the City, attempted to raise oversight queries on these upgrades with the City’s portfolio committee on security and social services.
DA Councillor Mzwakhe Nqavashe, who chaired the meeting, prevented him from making any representations. Could it be that the DA administration was trying to hide the contents of a City deviation report dated May 5, 2017? In this report, the City admits that the last police threat and risk assessment at the mayor’s residence was undertaken in 2014. How is it possible, then, that a SAPS assessment undertaken three years ago was used to justify a security upgrade expense of R495 431 just prior to financial year end 2017?
The irony of all of this is that City officials appear to have breached their fiduciary duties as the budget of R702 075.45 for this unauthorised expenditure was removed from the public funds operating budget allocated to Subcouncil 24 (cost centre 14020025; general ledger number 673050). Subcouncil 24 encompasses a large part of Khayelitsha.
When the Social Justice Coalition led evidence at the DA’s Khayelitsha Commission on Policing, they referred to the relationship between Khayelitsha’s degrading socio-economic conditions and its high levels of violent crime, and by extension the failure of the City of Cape Town and the provincial government to address these failures with sensitivity.
In terms of s(153)(a) of our Constitution, “a Municipality must structure and manage its administration and budgeting and planning processes to give priority to the basic needs of the community, and to promote the social and economic development of the community”.
There needs to be a full investigation into this sordid mess and I support the laying of charges with the police and further investigation by the public protector.