Jack exonerated but EFF continues fight to oust Bay leadership
The EFF will not back down on its motion calling for the removal of Nelson Mandela Bay’s top political leadership despite the Eastern Cape auditor-general clearing deputy mayor Khusta Jack of all transgressions related to his business dealings with the city.
The party’s regional chair, Khanya Ngqisha, said the code of conduct for councillors did not permit them to do business with the state because they were in a position to influence the process.
Ngqisha filed a motion of no confidence on Thursday last week against mayor Retief Odendaal, Jack and chief whip Bill Harington after an initial version was challenged in court for its failure to comply with the council’s rules.
The EFF said it wanted Odendaal to be removed because of his failure to act against Jack when the allegations of wrongdoing against the deputy mayor were raised.
Jack’s business dealings with the metro were flagged by the AG in a management report for his alleged failure to declare that he was employed by the state.
According to the report, Yonke Installations was paid R111,766,28 for two jobs it did for the metro in November and December 2021.
However, a leaked letter from AG business unit leader Shereen Noble — dated May 17 — to Jack’s lawyer states that Yonke Installations had been flagged after it appeared that a declaration submitted was false as it did not indicate that Jack was a director of the company.
“We requested from the municipality information about the declaration of interest of Yonke,” Noble said.
“The municipality provided us with a declaration from G John Matthews dated November 23 2020.
“This declaration stated that there was no director who is in service of the state, which contradicted the information we had confirming that Jack is a director of Yonke [Installations] and also a councillor of the municipality.”
The letter states that the AG then requested the city to confirm whether it was correct in respect of the allegation, but no response was provided.
“Therefore our conclusions on the finding remained,” Noble said.
“Had the municipality responded, we would have been able to perform a proper assessment of the transaction.”
Jack’s attorneys wrote to the office of the AG on April 3 to indicate that he had declared to the municipality that his company had been awarded a contract, before he was a councillor.
Subsequent to Jack’s legal letter, the office of the AG investigated further and found:
● The company submitted a quotation for fibre repair services on October 18 2021 in response to a municipal advert;
● The work was awarded to Yonke Installations on November 3 2021 by the municipality; and
● Jack was appointed as a councillor on November 5 2021 based on payroll documents.
“It is clear that Jack was appointed as councillor on November 5 2021, which is after Yonke Installations was awarded the quotation on November 3 2021.
“At the time of concluding on this matter, we did not have such information.
“Our conclusion was based on information at our disposal at the time,” Noble said.
She said had the municipality correctly responded by checking the information requested, the matter could have easily been cleared up.
“As the auditors, at the time when these processes were taking place, we placed reliance
on the information submitted by the municipality.
“We will therefore engage with the municipality to effect the necessary amendments on the management report.”
Last month, the AG also retracted another erroneous audit finding against the deputy mayor related to Umzamo Wethu, a company purported to be Jack’s, that also did business with the metro.
However, he was not a director of the company. “I have been warning my political detractors who have been accusing me of corruption and breaking the law that it is dangerous to make defamatory accusations on public platforms without first taking the trouble to establish the facts,” Jack said.
“Now they have exposed themselves to litigation after running a libellous campaign against me in the media.
“Despite the noise made by the opposition councillors, the council has handled this matter in the correct manner, as specified in the Municipal Systems Act, and referred it to the rules and ethics committee for investigation.
“But even that exercise is now irrelevant because there is nothing to investigate.
“The committee must simply submit a formal report to the council to that effect.
“Also irrelevant is the special council meeting which the opposition has petitioned for to be held on May 26.
“That petition and so-called motions of no confidence are based on non-existent audit findings which have been withdrawn by the AG.
“So the meeting is left with no legitimate council business to discuss. The speaker must simply call it off.”
But Ngqisha was adamant that Jack had to be removed for breaking the code of conduct.
“A part of the reason we filed the motion was that Jack benefited from the tender while he was still a councillor and that is prohibited.”
He said that even though the declaration was made before Jack became a councillor, he still transgressed by benefiting from payments made to Yonke Installations when he was a director.
“The code of conduct for councillors prohibits councillors from doing business with the state under any circumstances. His declaration does not exempt him from the fact that he breached the code of conduct and did business with his employer.
“Councillors are not to be allowed to conduct business with the state because they are in a position to influence decisions and we will never know how Yonke got that tender.”
Odendaal, meanwhile, said there was no basis for the motion against them from the beginning and that he was happy Jack had been cleared by the AG.
“The motion was a clear character assassination against Khusta and that was the only thing they could come up with against us as a government.
“The reality is that there’s nothing else they have to remove us.”
He said Ngqisha did not deserve to be the municipal public accounts committee (MPAC) chair because he had no respect for the rule of law and council procedures.
DA councillor Rano Kayser filed motions on Monday for the removal of Ngqisha from the position of MPAC chair and fellow EFF councillor Ntombizanele Sikawuti as the head of the rules and ethics committee.
Asked whether they would take the matter up with the courts after the receipt of the AG’s letter, Odendaal said: “Watch this space.”