Take a tough stand, Mayor Gumede
WHEN ratepayers hear disturbing claims that some eThekwini councillors and officials are involved in attempts to subvert disciplinary processes over a corruption scandal in the city, they fear there’s something rotten in their municipality.
These concerns are further compounded when they are told of complaints that a senior official in the municipality is being investigated for making disgustingly racist references to colleagues belonging to another race group and, in fact, referred to them derogatively at least five times in a single conversation.
They are justifiably disgusted and demand answers from those they helped put in office.
Such allegations involving nepotism and racism are scandalous and divisive in the extreme and cannot be tolerated under any circumstances.
And if mayor Zandile Gumede and her council hope to win the respect and confidence of ratepayers who put them in office, nothing short of a suspension of the official concerned and an urgent finalisation of their investigation is needed.
Ratepayers would have been unaware of this scandal had it not been for recordings of two phone conversations between the senior eThekwini official and a colleague regarding suspended city official, Zandile Sithole, on allegations of tender irregularities.
It has been reported that in these recordings, which the City is now investigating, there is a concerted effort by some councillors to reinstate Sithole by any means.
What really worries opposition parties like the DA and the IFP is not only the attempt to subvert disciplinary processes, but also the alleged involvement of politicians in such behaviour.
As DA caucus leader Nicole Graham has said: “Those who flout processes and are involved in corruption should be fired, and should not be protected because they are doing the bidding of politicians.”
And when it comes to racism, surely this official who is heard referring to deputy city manager in the city treasury, Krish Kumar, and other officials of Indian descent as “c ***** s”, is just as guilty as Vicki Momberg, Suzanne Govender and Adam Catzavelos for using the derogatory k-word?
To let the City official off the hook is clearly a case of double standards.
Mayor Gumede and her council owe the people of eThekwini an explanation so that ratepayers can decide whether they are part of the problem or the solution in our city.
As IFP leader Mdu Nkosi has rightly warned, any unnecessary delays in probing this matter will serve only to dent the integrity of the City and its council.