Knives are out for mayor Pakati
ANCYL punts Mkolo, amid claims BCM is in a state of ‘total collapse’
Knives are out for troubled Buffalo City mayor Xola Pakati over what the ANC Youth League in the region describes as a “total collapse of the municipality”.
In an interview with the Daily Dispatch on Friday, Dr WB Rubusana ANCYL regional secretary Luvo John said it was time for Pakati to go and for Pumlani Mkolo to take over the reins.
He returned to office at Rubusana House last Friday after the East London magistrate’s court withdrew charges against him and his co-accused.
Mkolo, Sindiswa Gomba, Zukiswa Ncitha, Luleka Simon-Ndzele, Ondela Mahlangu, Vincent Pillay and businesspeople Nosiphiwo Mati, Zintle Nkuhlu, Viwe Vazi and Dean Fanoe and Mzwandile Sokwali were arrested in 2014 for their alleged involvement in swindling more than R5m earmarked for Mandela memorial services following the death of the world icon in December 2013.
The charges have provisionally been withdrawn against all the accused, except Sokwali. Sokwali had pleaded guilty to fraud and money laundering, and his wife Busisiwe Boti entered into a plea bargain with the state. He was fined and sentenced to five years, which was wholly suspended for five years.
The ANC’s national disciplinary committee (NDC) demoted Gomba and Simon-Ndzele to ordinary councillors, and asked Mkolo to remain at home until charges against him were cleared.
This was after Mkolo had been elected as ANC Dr WB Rubusana regional chairperson in August 2017.
The August elective regional conference made a resolution to recall Pakati after he lost to Mkolo as chair with 107 to 120 votes. Delegates at the time said this would help deal with the headache of having “two centres of power”.
John said: “We once again call upon the ANC in the region to implement its own conference resolutions which state that there shall be no two centres of power in BCM.”
The two centres saga was also a resolution at the 2007 ANC national elective conference held in Polokwane, which resulted in the recall of Thabo Mbeki as state president.
This was after Mbeki lost to Jacob Zuma as ANC president.
John said both Pakati and BCM municipal manager Andile Sihlahla “continue to flounder and wade out of their depths in their management of affairs of this great metro”.
Under the microscope is the metro’s financial performance under both Sihlahla and Pakati, as political head of the metro.
The Daily Dispatch reported earlier this year that the metro’s cash reserves have dwindled drastically in the last three years, with it having almost halved since January 2018.
The report revealed that cash reserves dropped from R1.143bn in January 2018, to R553m in January this year.
At the time, national treasury spokesperson Jabulane Mulambo confirmed that this was a drastic decline as there “is a downward trend in respect of the cash reserves from R2.3bn in 2015-16”.
Mulambo said such an adverse trend was a result of the declined collection rate in the region of 86% over the past two financial years (2016-17 and 2017-18) from 92% in 2015-16.
Pakati refused to comment on the matter.