Protest disrupts municipal disciplinary hearing
A DISCIPLINARY hearing of suspended ethekwini Municipality deputy head of supplychain management Zandile Sithole is expected to resume under heavy security.
This comes after members of the Federation for Radical Economic Transformation, some of whose members are affiliated with the notorious Amadelangokubona Business Forum, disrupted Sithole’s hearing last week.
In an audio clip, Federation for Radical Economic Transformation members can be heard telling presiding officers to “voetsek” and saying they were there to represent radical economic transformation, of which Sithole was a “champion”. Other members, who were allegedly carrying weapons, demanded that Sithole be reinstated.
Threats were also made against the head of the city integrity investigation unit, Mbuso Ngcobo.
Representing Sithole at the hearing, South African Municipal Workers Union shop steward Nkosinathi Zuma said he had also felt threatened.
“To be honest, I felt unsafe. Those people were not scared of anything and they did not want any of us to leave the boardroom,” said Zuma.
The Amadelangokubona Business Forum has become notorious for demanding a share in big projects.
Two years ago former Kwazulu-natal premier Senzo Mchunu said it was disturbing that the forum’s members were boasting about being “hardcore criminals” and were not scared being arrested. This was after the group had sabotaged ethekwini municipality services in demand of tenders.
Federation for Radical Economic Transformation secretary-general Malusi Zondi said Sithole’s suspension would slow radical economic transformation.
“We were introduced to her in 2016 before we formed a federation of business forums. We hoped that with Zandile radical economic transformation would soon be a reality. With her suspension everything will be delayed.”
He said the federation was not disputing the charges against Sithole.
“Zandile’s role is to implement radical economic transformation. When we could see no progress we started asking about her and found out she was suspended,” he said.
“We do not care about their politics and we are not involved in her case. All we want is to see her back or someone appointed to do her work so that our businesses can be empowered.”
Members of the federation recently vowed to defend ethekwini mayor Zandile Gumede from what they said was an onslaught from enemies of radical economic transformation.
The federation said the mayor was also a champion of radical economic transformation, and in the audio clip a FFRET member could be heard saying that the mayor should be called if those present couldn’t provide the answers they were seeking. Mayoral spokesperson Mthunzi Gumede said the mayor condemned this intimidation and people who used violence to coerce municipal officials.