ETHEKWINI Municipality is investigating a case of fraud after the City Manager’s email address was allegedly used to solicit bribes.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in eThekwini came into possession of an email sent from what appeared to be eThekwini Municipality’s City Manager, Sipho Nzuza’s email address, to a director of one of the companies bidding for a construction job in the city. The director has chosen to remain anonymous for fear of his safety.
The e-mail sender posing as the City Manager made reference to a contract number for a job constructing retaining walls and structures in KwaDabeka in Ward 20.
The sender requested the director to contact him by 10am on a contact number provided.
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Councillor Marlaine Nair, DA eThekwini Economic Development and Planning Whip, said the director then made contact with the person posing as Sipho Nzuza and received a request for the sum of R100 000 with details of a bank account.
The director contacted his attorney who investigated the bank account details and advised him that the account did not belong to the City Manager and that the matter was fraudulent.
The fraudulent email communication came from a durban.gov.za domain name, which implies that the perpetrator is from within the municipality is major concern for Nair.
“The DA has written to the eThekwini City Manager, Sipho Nzuza to inform him of this matter and will request a thorough investigation into this corruption of tender processes. We will continue the fight against corruption and pursue transparency and fairness for all bidders, striving for clean governance in eThekwini.”
EThekwini Municipality’s acting head of communications Mandla Nsele said, “it was immediately reported to the City Integrity and Investigations Unit.”
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