Tragedy and scandal plague council
The incomplete mall made news last month when it collapsed, killing workers Zakithi Nxumalo and Zwelibanzi Masuku and injuring 29 employees. The city had been trying since March to stop the developers from continuing construction on the site, because the mall was being built without approved plans.
The municipality is seeking a contempt of court order against Rectangle Property Investments, for ignoring the previous ‘stop work’ court orders and also calling for the developer to pay a fine, or for the owner, Jagadasan, to be sent to jail. According to their court papers, the amount of the fine and/or the length of the prison sentence would be up to the court to decide.
The Singh family has been awarded several housing contracts by the municipality through its companies Woodglaze Trading and Gralio Precast. Singh’s now liquidated company, Remant Alton, once ran Durban’s buses. it was discovered she was not registered with the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA), was recently said to have returned to work after she was apparently cleared of wrongdoing after her suspension.
Gxagxisa had been fined R50 000 by the HPCSA for practising without council registration, and was later suspended by the city as it probed claims that she had brought the municipality into disrepute.
The HPCSA has, however, recently confirmed Gxagxisa had since been registered as a non-clinical medical practitioner and that she has been paying her monthly instalments.
Gxagxisa was suspended in September, after which an internal investigation was launched into her conduct.
In August last year, the SA Municipal Workers Union lodged a complaint against Gxagxisa with the HPCSA.
Gxagxisa was subsequently found guilty on two counts, the first being that between June 1992 and November 2011 she practised as a medical practitioner while not registered with the council.
She was also found guilty of bringing the profession into disrepute during that period for purporting to be a registered medical practitioner.
City spokesman Thabo Mofokeng, however would not confirm that Gxagxisa was at work, saying it was an internal matter.
But Musa Gumede, the deputy city manager responsible for health services, said the investigation on Gxagxisa had been completed and that the report was now with the city manager for him to apply his mind on whether to institute disciplinary action against her.
Abahlali baseMjondolo
The eThekwini Municipality has been in and out of court this year with Abahlali baseMjondolo, a shack-dwellers movement, over the tearing down of shacks at the Cato Crest informal settlement (see page 2).
The movement’s lawyers claimed that the municipality was defying a court order preventing further demolition of shacks there.
Trudie Nichols, the attorney representing Abahlali and 30 residents of the settlement, said police prevented residents from rebuilding the shacks that were demolished earlier by the municipality’s land invasion unit.
Abahlali and the 30 residents have approached the high court several times for legal intervention.
Abahlali have also even asked the court to hold the municipality, municipal manager S’bu Sithole and Harvey Mzimela, head of the land invasion unit, in contempt of court for not complying with an earlier interdict preventing further demolitions.
The municipality, however, is adamant it is ridding the city only of newly built shacks. It said the shacks protected under the court order had already been marked and remained untouched.
On a positive note, last month 113 families from the Stonebridge and Blackburn informal settlements were the first to move into the newly built Cornubia homes yesterday.
They are among the more than 400 families from informal settlements across eThekwini who will be moved to the 482 units in the developments Phase 1A by the end of the year.