Official objects to BCM report

Mesuli Mlandu threatens court action, appeal to public protector

In a desperate move to clear his name, a former Buffalo City Metro senior official has instructed his lawyers to take whatever action needed to compel council speaker Alfred Mtsi to table his side of the story in a controversial deviation probe by the municipal public accounts committee (Mpac).
Mesuli Mlandu, who recently resigned as a manager in city manager Andile Sihlahla’s office, was blamed in the report after the committee probed a deviation on the appointment of audit firm Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo (SNG) to do the annual stocktake in June.
The investigation came after the Dispatch exposed how the deviation went through without being approved by city manager Andile Sihlahla.
The company was paid R175,000 for work carried out on from 23 to 24 June.
Mlandu authorised the deviation payment on July 2 after the work was done. Deviations must be authorised before work is done.
Officials from Raymond Mhlaba municipality were appointed as temporary staff to execute the stocktaking.
BCM head of governance and internal auditing Busisiwe Msauli was suspended in September in connection with the deviation.
Mlandu’s lawyer Pumla Mncwango said her client would not have known that the work had already been done when he authorised the payment.
“There was nothing on the invoice that stated that,” said Mncwango.
“Our client instructed us to issue a letter of demand to the council speaker to table his objection to the Mpac report, and the formal complaint to the office of the public protector. The councillors have the Mpac report which found the client to have been negligent and resolved that he should be suspended pending disciplinary action,” she said.
Mtsi was served the letter of demand on November 19.
However last week the lawyers wrote another letter to Mtsi demanding answers about the tabling of Mlandu’s objection to the report. Mncwango said no response had been received from Mtsi.
“My client’s name is still in the mud and he wants to clear it. That objection seeks to give his side of the story. There is a black dot attached to his name even in his new job because of these allegations. Some people might even think that he jumped ship when he took a job in Gauteng,” Mncwango said.
“We are waiting for seven days and if nothing is received we have been instructed to take action that will compel him to table the objection and the formal complaint to the public protector’s office.”
Mtsi confirmed receiving the letter of demand from the lawyers.
“He was objecting the report as he has issues against it. The report was withdrawn from the agenda in October and was not tabled. I don’t understand the basis of the objection because no report was tabled. He also resigned from BCM.
“It was shocking to get the letter of demand from him. This has never happened before of someone objecting to an Mpac report,” said Mtsi.
He said the report was still not part of the agenda for the council meeting scheduled for Wednesday.
The Daily Dispatch reported last month that the Mpac report, which also implicates Sihlahla, was shelved at the 11th hour after warring factions in the ruling party could not agree on whether it should be tabled or not.
It recommends that he be taken through disciplinary processes and for some top officials implicated in the probe to be put on precautionary suspension.
Sources close to the ANC said that one faction wanted to protect the city manager...

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