Mashaba in row over R11m city deal for NGO
Mayor recommended foundation
Another deal and another denial of wrongdoing.
This time Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba is again embroiled in a public spat with the opposition in the council over a R11-million anti-drug deal awarded to a nongovernmental organisation (NGO) he once chaired.
Mashaba, who yesterday mounted another spirited defence against the allegations of potential conflict of interest over the funding of Field Band Foundation, admitted he vouched for it.
The ANC in Johannesburg has accused Mashaba of “using his power and influence to coerce” the metro into giving a grant to the NGO. This, however, Mashaba has again flatly denied.
Last month, the ANC raised concerns over the involvement of Lephatsi Financial Services, a company owned by Mashaba’s wife that the city had solicited free services from.
The mayor admitted that in February last year at a discussion on a strategy to combat the scourge of drugs in the city, he did put up Field Band Foundation’s name. “During this engagement, I suggested that the social development [within the city] look into the Field Band Foundation,” Mashaba said in a statement yesterday.
The statement was accompanied by an affidavit by a member of the mayoral committee for health and social development Mpho Phalatse, who sprung to his defence.
Phalatse confirmed that Mashaba “proposed that the city consider the foundation as one of possible recipients of the city’s grant programme”.
“At no point did I nor the department feel under any form of duress or undue influence to positively consider funding the foundation,” she stated under oath.”
However, the ANC accused the mayor of ensuring that “a pet project” that he has been associated with for 16 years received funding from the City of Joburg.
“The mayor chaired the February 2017 mayoral committee meeting and the special September 2017 mayoral committee meeting wherein the decisions to fund the Field Band Foundation were taken,” ANC’s Jolidee Matongo said.
Mashaba hit back: “I derive no benefit from the city supporting Field Band Foundation, and I have derived no benefit from the NGO over the many years of my support for it.”
‘‘ I have derived no benefit from the NGO over years of my support for it