‘Send SIU to Mbombela council’
ANC members in Mpumalanga’s capital want transactions dating back to 2015 investigated
Agroup of ANC members in Mbombela wants the party’s leadership to intervene in the Mpumalanga capital, where they say service delivery — and the functioning of council — has been harmed by infighting between party factions.
They want mayor Sibongile Makushe and municipal manager Wiseman Khumalo to be recalled from office over the “failure” of the city’s leadership and want the ANC to force the municipality to act over officials allegedly appointed without the proper qualifications.
They also want President Cyril Ramaphosa to authorise the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to look into alleged corruption in the Mpumalanga capital, dating back to a 2014-15 advisory services contract through which the city lost out on R97.2 million.
In addition, they want the SIU to investigate more recent transactions that took place during Khumalo and Makushe’s tenure, including eight variations on road construction contracts that ballooned to R200 million and which have been flagged by the city’s municipal public accounts committee.
Mbombela, Mpumalanga’s largest municipality and its economic hub, is governed by the ANC, which holds 59 seats in the 90-seat council and has run it since its incorporation.
Last month the group, which includes Ronnie Malomane, an ANC member who blew the whistle on ghost branches in the party in Mpumalanga in 2017, sparking intervention from Luthuli House, wrote to the party leadership and to
Mbombela speaker William Nkatha asking them to intervene.
The Mail & Guardian has previously reported on dysfunction and alleged corruption and maladministration in the council, which has battled to deal with unqualified managers, spiralling overtime bills, huge cost variations in council contracts and unimplemented council resolutions.
In the memorandum, which was submitted to the ANC’S Ehlanzeni region and also to Luthuli House, the group said the council led by Makushe was “nonfunctional” and that there was “confusion” over the roles of the mayor, speaker and deputy mayor.
They said the council’s functioning “continues to deteriorate” under the leadership of Khumalo, a former chief financial officer who became municipal manager in 2019 on a two-year contract that was extended.
“The municipal manager has usurped financial obligations to himself to enrich himself and his cronies,” the memorandum said. “The city is unable to meet its financial obligations and its cash flow woes continue unabated.”
Contractors were being paid selectively, which was affecting the ability of the city to both pay its creditors and deliver services timeously.
The memorandum called on the ANC leadership to recall the mayor and municipal manager “with immediate effect as they are not fit to hold office”.
It called on Ramaphosa to authorise an investigation by the SIU into “all forms of corruption currently occurring within the municipality” and for a 2018 report into alleged corruption of R97.2m by two consultancies,
Spatialize and Nisela Capital, be made public”.
When she became mayor at the end of 2021, Makushe had vowed to implement the report’s findings into corruption under the tenure of her predecessor, Sbu Mathonsi, and to recover the money.
This has not happened.
The memorandum demanded that the Nisela report be brought to the council and that disciplinary action be taken against any council officials and managers who had signed off on the contracts.
It also called on the ANC and the council to act against officials who had been found to be without the qualifications necessary for their jobs, including those of two general managers who had allegedly falsified their CVS.
The memorandum also asked the ANC to intervene in the “victimisation” of chief financial officer Delight Sibanyoni, who had been appointed in February, and who had been investigated for alleged qualification fraud and cleared.
Mpumalanga cooperative governance and traditional affairs MEC Mandla Msibi had also attempted to have Sibanyoni removed from the post, and wrote to the council instructing them to do so twice, in July and in August.
But the council did not do so on the grounds that the window period during which Msibi could comment on the appointment had expired before he attempted to have Sibanyoni removed.
The memorandum claimed that Makushe had “misled” the council over the appointment of Sibanyoni and that it was the council, and not Msibi, who had the power to take decisions over this.
“In short,the CFO was not the preferred candidate for the executive mayor as she will not allow the finance office as her ATM. This is further compounded by her refusal to include a non-finance person as a signatory to the city’s bank accounts,” the memorandum said.
Regarding the city’s leadership, the memorandum said: “The mayor is the political head of administration and as such she has the responsibility to make the administration work. The speaker heads the executive arm and should not be relegated to presiding over council sittings only.
“The chief whip of the majority party is entrusted with all the councillors under his guidance and direction. He is the political head of all councillors, including the opposition. This is the link to the governing party.
“Here the opposite is true, the executive mayor regards herself as the troika and more senior by virtue of being a PEC [provincial executive committee] member,” it concluded.
Malomane said they had asked the ANC to intervene because of concerns about the state of the municipality, which the Auditor General of South Africa has described as being in danger of losing its ability to operate as a going concern.
“We are worried about the state of service delivery and about the city’s finances, which are not stabilising. We believe that we need the intervention that we are asking for. We are ANC members and are trying to have the ANC act to save this council and its good name,” he said.
“We are waiting to hear from the leadership as to the way forward from here.”
Mbombela spokesperson Joseph Ngala said he could not comment on “a purported submission from a political party” and referred the M&G to Nkatha.
Nkatha had not responded to requests for comment at the time of writing.
ANC regional secretary Folas Shiburi confirmed that they had received the memorandum and that they were in the process of facilitating a meeting between the mayor and the group of ANC members.
“The memorandum is directed to the municipality but they did it via the ANC as they are ANC members. We don’t have a problem with that,” Shiburi said.
“We have forwarded the memorandum to the executive mayor so that they are able to respond. Currently the mayor is ready to make a presentation.
“We will arrange a date to invite their delegation to the office and the mayor will respond to the allegations against the city,” Shiburi said.