Councillors may be slapped with McBride’s legal fees
COUNCILLORS of the Ekurhuleni municipality on the East Rand have a R10-million headache — and it is called Robert McBride.
The former Ekurhuleni Metro Police chief has not worked for the municipality since 2008, but he ran up a staggering R10.8million legal bill fighting a variety of cases, including one for drunk driving.
Now the council is in a corner because a formal legal opinion has suggested they recoup the money from the 100 councillors who backed the decision to pay McBride’s bills.
If approved, the remaining 50 councillors still in office, who earn about R300 000 a year, could each be slapped with a bill of about R200 000 if the municipality proceeds with its bid to recover the money.
According to minutes of a council meeting on September 25 2008, 100 of the 155 councillors voted in favour of the municipality paying McBride’s legal fees “until the matter is finalised at the high court”.
The recommendation excluded any new matters, but stated that “McBride remains obligated to repay council in the event of him losing at the high court”.
McBride was convicted in 2011, but this was overturned on appeal earlier this year.
The municipality has been formally advised that it would be difficult to hold McBride liable for the money and should consider getting its councillors to pay.
Ekurhuleni spokesman Mandlakazi Mpahlwa-Sigcawu refused to confirm the details of the legal opinion.
Asked whether the proposal to bill the councillors would be put before council, Mpahlwa- Sigcawu said the matter was still subject to an investigation.
“Hence the Ekurhuleni municipality would not want to comment on anything until the investigation has been finalised and it has received and considered a final report,” she said.
In terms of the municipality’s policy, McBride, like any other official, was entitled to a maximum of R10 000 towards his legal fees.
The 2008 motion to pay his legal bill was raised by councillor Aubrey Nxumalo, the current mayoral committee member for water and energy.
Of the 100 councillors who backed it, 96 belonged to the ANC, including Ntombi Mekgwe, now MEC for local government and traditional affairs in Gauteng.
Mekgwe’s spokesman, Motsamai Motlhaolwa, said: “This matter is a subject of investigation by Ekurhuleni municipality and all inquiries must be directed to the municipality.”
More than half of the councillors are no longer in office.
McBride, who has been nominated to head the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, was involved in several legal battles during his time in office.
Council minutes show that at the time of the vote on his legal fees, the municipality had already incurred R4.9-million “as a result of legal action instituted against the chief of police”.
The Democratic Alliance said the “buck has to stop with the ANC councillors who took the decision”.
The DA’s spokesperson for community safety in the municipality, Michele Clarke, said: “I’m happy to hear that a legal opinion is holding the ANC accountable because they transgressed their own policies.”