DA demands apology from ANC over Pappas allegations
THE DA in KwaZulu-Natal has demanded that the ANC publicly apologise to uMngeni Local Municipality mayor Chris Pappas for false accusations against him.
This comes after Pappas was cleared of spousal nepotism allegations by a Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs report. The allegations were levelled against him by ANC member Sizwe Mchunu.
After initiating an investigation in October last year, Cogta has recently written to the municipality to inform its management that Mchunu’s allegations were unfounded.
In a letter signed by the Cogta MEC Bongi Sithole-Moloi last month seen by the Daily News, the MEC said based on the information sourced and provided and in the absence of further details it was deduced that the allegations at this stage were unfounded.
However, the report cautioned the municipality to strengthen its internal control relating to the funding of community ourism rganisations.
The report found the municipality to be in the wrong for not having a policy which outlined a process of funding community tourism organisations, which was in contravention of Section 33 of KwaZulu-Natal Tourism Act 1996.
Pappas said he was not surprised by the outcome.
“It was something that I was never worried about. I knew from the beginning that it was cheap politics by the ANC and by small parties seeking relevance,” said Pappas.
To prove that the ANC did not know what it was doing it even marched to the municipality looking for Passas, not for Pappas, he said. One of the placards in the march read Passas instead of Pappas.
He said it was a political stunt by the ANC after he was announced as the DA’s premier candidate.
DA provincial chairperson Dean Macpherson said the ANC should foot the bill of the investigation costs.
Yesterday Mchunu disputed the Cogta report, saying the department never interacted with him so he would not apologise to Pappas.
“In their dreams! Rest assured they will receive no apology from me. Cogta is not an investigating authority and I have never engaged or interacted with Cogta on this particular matter.
“My complaint was directed to the Public Protector and a series of interviews have been held and documents sourced by the PP in their investigations, thus they haven't concluded the investigation,” said Mchunu.
The allegation that Pappas practised nepotism by influencing the municipality to give R100 000 funding to uMngeni Tourism, a non-profit organisation which at that time was owned by his then fiance Jean-Pierre Prinsloo, was brought to the public’s attention by former DA provincial leader Sizwe Mchunu.