Madiba fees row

Taxpayers have footed the legal bill for the Mandela funeral fund accused after the Buffalo City Municipality paid almost R150000 towards their fees.

The payment relates to a separate case, brought by suspended municipal manager Andile Fani where he alleged that he was being victimised by the Mandela scandal accused because he is a state witness in the funeral scandal case.

The accused – former mayor Zukiswa Ncitha, former speaker Luleka Simon-Ndzele and ANC senior councillor Sindiswa Gomba – had clashed with Fani last year before he approached the East London Regional Court crying intimidation and alleged breach of bail conditions by the three. He wanted the court to revoke their bail, arguing they were interfering with him – as a witness. Ncitha had instituted disciplinary charges against Fani over alleged irregularities.

The ANC-led council took a reso-lution to reimburse Ncitha, Simon-Ndzele and Gomba for costs they incurred during the Fani case. It has now transpired that BCM forked out R145482 to Smit Tabata Attorneys, who had appointed Advocate Richard Quinn SC, and Fredericks & Associates.

This was revealed in a confidential report leaked to the Dispatch and tabled before council recently.

Opposition parties had walked out of the session which voted for the reimbursements last year.

The three politicians were arrested – along with suspended Dr WB Rubusana ANC secretary Pumlani Mkolo – by the Hawks in 2014 over their alleged involvement in the misuse of funds tintended for Mandela memorial services in 2013.

However, Fani’s case was thrown out when the court found that there was no link between his disciplinary hearing at BCM and the Mandela funeral scandal case.

For the main case on the alleged misuse of Mandela funeral funds, the accused are self-funding.

But the payment of the legal fees has outraged the Buffalo City Ratepayers Forum, with its chairman Andre Swartz saying that the public protector should investigate the matter.

“Why must ratepayers and residents pay for the accused’s actions? If the ANC wants to pay for the accused they should do so without dragging the ratepayers into that.

“We should not be responsible for any of the legal costs against them and as a forum we are totally against the payments. As a ratepayer I know for a fact I would not want to be paying for their legal costs,” Swartz said.

Yesterday, Quinn and Mark Fredericks confirmed that the metro had paid what was owed to them.

Invoices seen by the Dispatch highlighted that Smith Tabata Attorneys charged R97527 inclusive of Quinn’s R43890 charge fee.

The invoices showed that Quinn charged R3500 an hour for consultations and preparation. He charged R35000 for fee on trial.

Fredericks charged R47955 for his services.

Said Fredericks: “They have paid in full and this was after BCM took a council resolution to pay for the legal fees”.

The DA’s councillor Jan Smit said they had opposed the motion from the time it was first discussed in council last year.

“We should not even be discussing that case because it is not an internal matter but they went ahead and paid for the costs,” Smit said.

However, ANC councillor Mongezi Ngcaba said the decision to pay for the accused was not only about defending the accused but it was defending the council, as Fani claimed the accused had intimidated him through council processes as a state witness.

Last year Ncitha was given an approval by council to issue Fani with a letter of intent to suspend him after she presented a report to the council on Fani’s alleged misconduct relating to tampering with a tender box and a financial probe by the National Treasury.

Said Ngcaba: “(For Fani to) view this as an attack on him was rubbish, hence we had to defend the councillors. The metro only paid for that hearing and going forward the accused will pay for themselves as they have been doing so, because their case is a private matter,” Ngcaba said. —mamelag@dispatch.co.za