Sihlahla accuses infrastructure boss of sabotage
The knives are out for Buffalo City Metro’s head of infrastructure Nceba Ncunyana, who has been accused of undermining the controversial selection committee and of “sabotaging” service delivery by wanting to give work to his “preferred” companies.
This was revealed in a “top secret” report seen by the Daily Dispatch. But some councillors have questioned the motivation behind the report.
In it, city manager Andile Sihlahla warns of consequences for Ncunyana and for other officials who interfere with “management processes”. He accuses Ncunyana of colluding with the then-acting supply chain general manager “to sabotage and undermine” Sihlahla’s “efforts of minimising fraud, corruption, favouritism and unfair and irregular practices”.
Ncunyana did so, he alleges, by hiding requisitions that were meant to be dealt with by the selection committee and continuing to issue work orders without them being dealt with by the selection committee first.
The report lists six companies that Ncunyana recommended be given major projects by his department. Sihlahla highlights that despite these recommendations, the selection committee chose other companies to do the same jobs at much lower rates than those put forward by Ncunyana.
For example, for the installation of a pipeline in Nonkcampa, Ncunyana put forward a company called NEPA at a cost of R1.5m, while the committee chose another company, Manyobo, to do the same work for
The report lists six companies that Ncunyana recommended be given major projects from his department
R858,764.
In another example, for the installation of a 160mm pipeline at Rosedale, Ncunyana recommended contractor CZAR at a cost of R2.3m, but the committee opted for Amanz’Abantu at R1.9m.
Sihlahla writes: “HoD: Infrastructure services has continued to act as a player and the referee by deliberately indicating which service provider he prefers when doing a requisition. He has done this despite the establishing of the selection committee from top management and in council, which is tantamount to insubordination.
“He continued to undermine and sabotage service delivery by instructing his subordinates not to implement work orders which had different service providers other than those he wrote on the requisition [preferred ones] and this resulted in some of the projects not [being] implemented in the last financial year and wards losing their allocation budgets.”
The report left ANC councillors divided on Tuesday. Some said they were shocked by the “random” report while many reportedly supported the action to be taken against Ncunyana. Consensus could not be found, and the ANC caucus resolved that the report should not be discussed in Wednesday’s meeting but deferred to the January council meeting.
An ANC councillor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “We don’t even know how this report came about and we want the minutes of the meeting that reportedly stirred this thing up. The fact that he is being dealt with for not adhering to the recommendation of the selection committee on its own raises eyebrows. This brings to the surface all the questions around the infamous selection committee.”
After Wednesday’s council meeting, Ncunyana told the Dispatch he was unaware of the report.