Buffalo City ratepayers will have to foot the legal bills for the mayor, speaker and a councillor, who are involved in a legal dispute with municipal manager Andile Fani.
The decision for the metro to pay the costs comes after a motion was tabled by the ANC at a council meeting on Friday at the Abbotsford Christian Centre in East London.
“This motion will open the floodgates for ratepayers to pay for their legal costs in other cases they are involved in because they are hiring advocates and now do not have money to defend themselves.”
COPE’s Khayalethu Twalingca said party members walked out because they were not offered the opportunity to discuss the motion before it was put to the vote.
“Voting will have meant that we agree with the motion. That is what is happening in that council,” Twalingca said.
“We are being suffocated, no matter how much we try to raise correct processes needed to be followed.
“It will result in irregular expenditure, which will have to be paid by the council.”
Public Service Accountability Monitoring’s Jay Kruuse said the council should have referred the motion to the provincial treasury or the auditor-general’s office for advice before coming to a decision.
The motion also recommended that a probe be conducted into why Fani’s case was not brought before council before it went to court.
It also stated that the court judgment and report on the investigation would be presented to the council at a later stage.
Yesterday, ANC chief whip Sangweni Matwele defended the motion: “This was a mandate from the ANC.”
Attempts to get comment from Fani and municipal spokesman Keith Ngesi on how much the legal fees were expected to be were unsuccessful at the time of writing yesterday.
Ncitha, Simon-Ndzele and Gomba, together with seven others, face various charges related to the multimillion-rand Mandela memorial scandal. Fani is a state witness in the case.
On April 29 Ncitha presented a report to the council meeting on Fani’s alleged misconduct relating to tampering with a tender box and financial probe by the National Treasury.
She was given approval to issue him with a letter of intent to suspend. This was construed by Fani as an attempt to intimidate him, or as interfere in his role as a witness in the Mandela case.
But ANC councillors argued on Friday that the resolutions of the April council meeting were the basis for the motion and not because it had anything to do with the Mandela case. — msindisif@dispatch.co.za
BCM to pay mayor’s legal bill
The decision for the metro to pay the costs comes after a motion was tabled by the ANC at a council meeting on Friday at the Abbotsford Christian Centre in East London.
“This motion will open the floodgates for ratepayers to pay for their legal costs in other cases they are involved in because they are hiring advocates and now do not have money to defend themselves.”
COPE’s Khayalethu Twalingca said party members walked out because they were not offered the opportunity to discuss the motion before it was put to the vote.
“Voting will have meant that we agree with the motion. That is what is happening in that council,” Twalingca said.
“We are being suffocated, no matter how much we try to raise correct processes needed to be followed.
“It will result in irregular expenditure, which will have to be paid by the council.”
Public Service Accountability Monitoring’s Jay Kruuse said the council should have referred the motion to the provincial treasury or the auditor-general’s office for advice before coming to a decision.
The motion also recommended that a probe be conducted into why Fani’s case was not brought before council before it went to court.
It also stated that the court judgment and report on the investigation would be presented to the council at a later stage.
Yesterday, ANC chief whip Sangweni Matwele defended the motion: “This was a mandate from the ANC.”
Attempts to get comment from Fani and municipal spokesman Keith Ngesi on how much the legal fees were expected to be were unsuccessful at the time of writing yesterday.
Ncitha, Simon-Ndzele and Gomba, together with seven others, face various charges related to the multimillion-rand Mandela memorial scandal. Fani is a state witness in the case.
On April 29 Ncitha presented a report to the council meeting on Fani’s alleged misconduct relating to tampering with a tender box and financial probe by the National Treasury.
She was given approval to issue him with a letter of intent to suspend. This was construed by Fani as an attempt to intimidate him, or as interfere in his role as a witness in the Mandela case.
But ANC councillors argued on Friday that the resolutions of the April council meeting were the basis for the motion and not because it had anything to do with the Mandela case. — msindisif@dispatch.co.za
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