Durban — Musa Mbhele’s fate as eThekwini city manager is now in the hands of the city’s all-important Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) as it sits on Tuesday to discuss the report that recommended he be charged prior to his appointment.
MPAC chairperson Thami Xuma confirmed to the Daily News on Monday that the committee would deliberate on the report and recommend to the City council what action it should take against the city manager for his conduct.
Xuma, an EFF member, said the MPAC would look at the reports compiled by the City Integrity and Investigation Unit (CIIU) and advise the relevant bodies on the way forward.
In the case of the city manager, who was hired by the council, his committee was bound to recommend to the council what must be done, he said.
“We are meeting tomorrow (on Tuesday) to deliberate on the matter. After our discussion, we will make recommendations to the council on what should happen,” said Xuma.
MPAC’s intervention appeared to have been prompted by the City’s Financial Misconduct Board which also recommended that Mbhele be criminally charged.
A board official, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed to the Daily News on Monday that the board had recommended to the council that a criminal case be opened against Mbhele so further investigation can be carried out since there was a criminal element to what he had allegedly done.
In terms of the act, the CIIU was supposed to open the case with the police after the Financial Misconduct Board recommended it, but Daily News understands this has not yet happened.
In the CIIU report, the investigators said Mbhele refused to share his bank statements from 2013 to 2015 as they had requested him to do, which were going to prove the allegations by the City official who claimed that he was used as a transaction conduit between Mbhele and the company that got the tender to manage the City’s street pole advertising.
The official claimed the company and Mbhele had struck a deal that he must be given a tender and in return he would pay R3 million.
Mbhele’s refusal to submit bank statements also hampered the investigators to establish whether it was true that he used his own money to rebuild his house, which he demolished soon after the tender was awarded. The investigators said that since no criminal case was opened, they could not lawfully obtain his statements from the bank.
A 2019 report by the City Integrity and Investigations Unit, seen by the Daily News, found Mbhele was guilty of contravening the Municipal Finance Management Act in that he entered into a memorandum of agreement that had allegedly amended the terms of the contract of a tender without council approval.
This compelled the City to renew the contract with the service provider, although he had not done the job to the City’s satisfaction.
The report said the renewal clause was not in the initial contract.
The Daily News had previously reported that Mbhele could have been illegally appointed, after revelations that there was a disciplinary charge pending against him when he got the post.
Last week, the City’s executive committee said it would launch a full investigation into what actually transpired.
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