A confidential forensic report into the running of troubled Ngqushwa municipality has alleged that ANC council speaker Zukisa Jowela interfered with tender and employment processes.
Jowela said council had not yet received the report and so he could not at the moment comment on its contents.
According to the report seen by the Daily Dispatch, Jowela is alleged to have given suspended municipal manager Vuyokazi Mbelani a list of companies that had to get municipal tenders.
In another instance, the report claims that Jowela instructed Mbelani to blacklist various companies owned by ANC members who campaigned against his faction at the party’s elective conference in Port Elizabeth last year.
It is further revealed that a contract already awarded to a company had to be terminated on Jowela’s instructions, because he and the company’s owner were allegedly not on good political terms.
The report, which has yet to be made public, stems from investigations by the provincial department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta).
The probe was instituted earlier this year by then Cogta MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane after Mbelani and mayor Solomzi Ndwayana wrote separate letters to Cogta and national treasury complaining about Jowela’s conduct.
Bhisho sent the task team to the embattled and financially strained council after allegations of political meddling in procurement and employment of senior administration staff resurfaced earlier this year.
Mbelani had claimed that Jowela gave her a list of companies and demanded they be awarded tenders, a move Mbelani reported to the mayor and Cogta.
According to the report, ANC provincial deputy chairman Sakhumzi Somyo, who is also the provincial finance MEC, had to “intervene” in the stand-off between Jowela and Mbelani.
Yesterday Somyo could not be reached for comment.
Mbelani was subsequently placed on precautionary suspension by council after she had written to the department.
She was later charged with 14 alleged transgressions which included gross dishonesty, failure to implement council resolutions and unauthorised absence from council meetings.
Yesterday, Mbelani also refused to comment saying she had not yet seen the report.
Ndwayana yesterday could not be reached for comment, while Cogta spokesman Mamkeli Ngam would only confirm that the investigation team had tabled their report to MEC Fikile Xasa.
“The MEC referred that report to the department’s top management for analysis and guidance on how it should be implemented,” said Ngam. — asandan@dispatch.co.za