Fears ‘troika’ could sanitise findings

THE Buffalo City Metro ANC has come under fire for allegedly trying to interfere with the presentation of a forensic investigation report to council in June concerning the dodgy spending of R17.3-million for sports events.

Some of the events, including a R250 000 “egg-andspoon” race, never took place.

Acting city manager Bob Naidoo presented a “top secret” report to the council last week which stated that the metro’s troika – mayor Xola Pakati, council speaker Alfred Mtsi and council chief whip Mzwandile Vaaiboom – were expected to meet and “discuss the methodology and preliminaries for the presentation of the report” before it is presented to council.

“By the time of submission, the meeting had not yet taken place, owing to tightness of schedules of the political office bearers,” said Naidoo.

He said a suitable date “is awaited from the chief whip’s office”.

Vaaiboom yesterday denied they were waiting for him, saying the report would go straight to council as was the case with all reports.

“As the chief whip I was also shocked to learn that a date was reportedly being awaited from my office. This has nothing to do with my office.

“It was reported as if the reason why the forensic report was not ready was because the meeting did not take place and that is not true.

“The acting city manager apologised in council for the mistake; the report will come straight to council and not the troika first,” Vaaiboom said.

The report, seen by the Saturday Dispatch, requested an extension for the report and for it to be submitted in the June council meeting instead.

Some opposition parties expressed concerns about the troika’s involvement, stating that the report could be “desensitised” or “interfered with” before it got to council.

UDM councillor Thembisa July said: “We have no structure known as the troika in local government. That structure is the arrangement of the ruling party; it is their own arrangement and it should have nothing to do with council agendas.

“In local government we have the standing committees, mayoral committees and then council. The report should come straight to the council and not the troika first.”

The outstanding investigation is being conducted by forensic investigators KPMG looking at the BCM 2015-16 sports sponsorship committee close-out report, during the time when Mtsi was the mayor.

Last year the Dispatch exposed at least six ghost tournaments where R2.1-million was paid as part of the spending.

Since the forensic investigation started last year there have been a number of challenges faced by the top firm.

In the recent report Naidoo highlighted as a challenge the length of time spent on the investigation.

“The length of time spent has been a major factor although it appears there are external factors which have affected the momentum of the investigation.

A DA councillor, who asked not to be named, said: “We were concerned that when the report comes to council it would not be in its original form if the troika discussed it first.” — mamelag@