THE eThekwini Municipality has said it wants to set the record straight regarding an article published in a daily newspaper.
The City said the comments in the article titled: ‘New riot gear irks metro cops’ which was published on Monday, 27 June, referring to a procurement process to buy R5.5 million worth of firearms using Section 32, are incorrect.
According to the eThekwini Municipality Head of Communications Unit, Tozi Mthethwa, this comment was obtained from a City press statement issued to the daily newspaper in May 2015, where it was stated that the City had placed an order for ammunition with the company that was awarded the contract, and that the stock was expected to arrive soon.
The article states that the said firearms have still not been delivered.
“The City believes that quoting from that particular statement is misleading to the public, as the daily newspaper had not referred to the City for an update nor indicated that such inaccurate information would be published for public consumption. In fact, the firearms order was cancelled in June 2015 after it was noted that delivery would be impossible before the end of that financial year,” she said.
Mthethwa said the second order was placed in April 2016 for 791 firearms and these were timeously delivered on 13 June 2016.
