THE POWER OF ONE
How an ex-con ‘captured’ key Joburg dept
● Reformed former convict Gayton McKenzie is said to have “captured” a key department in the City of Johannesburg, purged senior officials and installed his allies in crucial city-owned organisations that control billions in taxpayers’ money.
McKenzie’s party, the Patriotic Alliance (PA), emerged as a kingmaker when it entered into a coalition with the ANC after mayor Herman Mashaba resigned last year.
The Sunday Times has seen a video in which McKenzie boasts about the takeover, and says: ‘‘I do not play with power.’’
The city’s mayor, Geoffrey Makhubo, appointed Lloyd Phillips, the PA’s only councillor in a council of 270 seats, as a member of the mayoral committee (MMC) responsible for economic development in December last year.
Since then McKenzie, through Phillips, is said to have chopped and changed the boards and removed senior executives from three key entities — the City of Joburg Property Company (JPC), the Joburg Market, and the Metropolitan Trading Company (MTC). The three entities combined have a total budget of more than R2bn.
The JPC has a budget of R968m for the ongoing financial year, excluding the city assets it manages, such as land and buildings worth billions.
The Joburg Market has been allocated R536m and the MTC’s budget amounts to R513m.
The ANC relies on small parties like the PA to stay in power in Johannesburg and it is believed Makhubo has kept silent on the PA’s actions to keep the coalition intact.
Makhubo’s spokesperson Mlimandlela Ndamase said: ‘‘The mayor is committed to good governance and transparency. Administrative acts in the city are governed by law and where there has been transgressions, the mayor has always committed to act in the best interests of residents and the city.’’
In the shake-up, almost the entire management of the Joburg Market has been changed, while five members of JPC management are on suspension.
McKenzie’s ally and former city councillor Leanne Williams has taken over as CEO of the Joburg Market. In 2018 the Sunday Times reported how former president Jacob Zuma had tried to appoint her as national police commissioner — a move believed to have been influenced by Zuma’s close ties with McKenzie and his business partner Kenny Kunene.
In the JPC, CEO Helen Botes has been suspended and replaced by the PA’s Eldred Mtaner on an acting basis.
During a campaign rally this month in Riverlea, Johannesburg, ahead of a by-election next month, McKenzie boasted about how he was “in charge” of entities under the city’s economic development portfolio.
“Riverlea, let me show you power. I do not play with power,” he told a crowd, adding that when he joined the city’s governing coalition he had said he “wanted the department of economic development”.
“I prayed. I said God, if we could just get the department of economic development, because all the jobs for our people are there.” He added: “All this vacant land and all these buildings that you see are with me now.”
However, in his response to questions from the Sunday Times, McKenzie denied interfering in any of the city’s entities.
Asked about claims of ‘‘capturing’’ the city, he said: “No. By ‘capture’, if you actually meant the PA is contributing to improving and cleaning up the running of the various entities entrusted to the PA in a coalition government in Joburg, then I would agree with you. Maybe that’s what you meant? We are ‘capturing it’ from the thieves.”
He said the PA had found that some officials in the JPC were involved in personal protective equipment (PPE) corruption.
He said the that the removal of officials was part of the cleanup.
But City of Johannesburg insiders claimed McKenzie’s “henchmen” have instilled fear among officials and some had been intimidated for refusing to take instructions from them. The Sunday Times has seen an alleged “hit list” of officials who needed to be dealt with.
But McKenzie laughed off claims there was such a list, saying no-one would incriminate themselves in wrongdoing by putting together such a document.
“Who in their right minds would write a supposedly highly incriminating resolution recording that ‘crimes’ are being planned against people, and then somehow these ‘plans’ end up conveniently in the hands of the people who are trying to escape going to jail for all their corruption and theft?”
But internal communications among management and staff of the JPC, organised labour and the board show a pattern of what appears to be a purge of those not toeing the line of the PA.
Insiders said Williams’s appointment was irregular because she had participated in the appointment of the board that later installed her as CEO.
“This is blatant capture. Leanne [Williams] is a political senior to the MMC [Phillips] and they both formed a panel of 10 to interview people for the vacancy of Joburg Market CEO, seven of them PA members,” said an executive at Joburg Market.
“Then Leanne, who applied for the same vacancy, came second in the psychometric test and on point-scoring of candidates, but these were neglected for political expediency as she got appointed.
“The worst part is that the board is filled with PA political deployees who are juniors to Leanne politically in the party, since she is deputy president of their party, so they take instructions from her — which makes a mockery of corporate governance at Joburg Market,” the executive said.
On taking over as Joburg Market CEO, Williams is said to have suspended CFO Sifiso Dlamini, and his position was advertised in August.
Manqoba Ngubo replaced Dlamini, while most of the other executives were placed on suspension.
Williams declined to comment, saying she was no longer a member of the PA.
Botes, who is on suspension, has been suspended several times previously by the new regime. She was replaced by Eldred Mtaner, who had just been just been appointed the chief technology officer and act
ing CE of the MTC eight days earlier.
Mtaner said that even though his CV was submitted to the JPC board by Phillips, PA leaders played no part in his appointment. He said he was qualified for the post.
The Sunday Times has seen correspondence from a JPC board member who resigned, citing the collapse of governance in the entity.
Another penned a letter accusing his colleagues of “obsession” with supply chain management matters and demanding lists of suppliers from management.
Phillips on Friday dismissed accusations the PA had “captured” the three entities.
“These are absurd claims because we have one seat in council, which I am an occupant of. The notion of my party capturing the city is absurd,” said Phillips.
“It is all nonsense. They have an issue with us appointing coloured people. We are giving qualified people from the coloured community an opportunity. Right now we are cleaning up JPC. We found a bunch of unionists there who are trying to obstruct our work. It is just sour grapes.”