ETHEKWINI Municipality’s failure to address the growing number of complaints regarding issues surrounding the building inspectorate and the Land Use Management (LUM) department has resulted in a call for the City Integrity and Investigation Unit (CIIU) to investigate the department and carry out lifestyle audits of the officials in the department.
DA councillor Chris Pappas said councillors received weekly complaints about the response or lack of response to issues involving the building inspectorate or LUM department.
“Many residents claim corruption and maladministration is rife in the Development Planning, Environment and Management Department. The inability to enforce city bylaws is also a concern that must be addressed,” he said, adding that the DA would be submitting a report to the CIIU calling for a thorough investigation.
“The call comes after we received a CIIU report regarding 317 Currie Road. Contained in the report is evidence of wrongdoing on the municipality’s part. The report was withheld from the Supreme Court of Appeal in the ongoing court battle. To date, more than 210 residents have indicated that they have information that needs to be investigated,” he said. Pappas said 210 cases of irregularities brought forward as well as 74 reported cases of infrastructure theft have not been investigated by the City.
ALSO READ: Save Our Berea supports call for building inspectorate probe
Pappas said residents with information regarding any land use management or building inspectorate issues that residents suspect involve wrongdoing or deviations from city policies, were encouraged to submit comments via the link: https://bit.ly/2DTUuKr
“Rampant corruption and the lack of consequence management in eThekwini must be urgently addressed,” he said
The DA’s attempts to inform the media about the allegations of mismanagement at the municipality were scuppered earlier this week when City Hall security officers forcibly removed eThekwini DA leader Nicole Graham and the media from the City Hall where a meeting with the media had been scheduled. However, Graham said the City’s intimidation tactics would not scare her off.
According to Graham, the City Hall venue had be booked for a press briefing but when the media arrived, security officers denied them entry.
After discussions between Graham and officials from Secretariat and Security Management, the matter was resolved and the media were allowed into City Hall. However, not long after, Graham said it appeared an instruction from an official in the Mayor’s Parlor to have them forcible removed from the venue was given.
Armed Metro Police guards arrived at the committee room where the meeting was to be held and despite trying to resolve the matter with Security Management Head Dumisani Bhengu, security forcibly removed the media from the building. Undeterred, Graham proceeded to conduct the press briefing outside on the steps of the City Hall.
Graham said she had called the meeting to discuss the fact that the City had failed to attend to the 371 fraud and corruption reports that had been made in the last quarter. She alleged that the City Manager had not actioned a single case brought before his office in the last quarter.
eThekwini Municipality responds
In a response from the municipality, Mayoral spokesperson Mthunzi Gumede said Mayor Zandile Gumede rejected reports that she instructed Metro Police to mishandle and eject members of the media from Durban City Hall.
“For the record, the Mayor was not aware of the DA press briefing until she received calls and text messages from ANC leadership and other leaders of political parties. Therefore, reports linking her to the commotion are untrue and are based on false statements and not facts,” said Gumede.
Gumede said the mayor has ordered an investigation to establish circumstances surrounding this incident. The report of the investigation will be shared among leaders of political parties in the municipality, members of the media and the public at large.
Save Our Berea comments
SAVE Our Berea’s Kevin Dunkley and Cheryl Johnson said they were delighted that the DA had joined their call for eThekwini Land Use Management and building inspectorate to be investigated.
“We have been calling for this for years. For the past four years, Save Our Berea has investigated and documented numerous deeply disturbing cases on the Berea around illegal process, blatant deviations from approved plans plus a slew of questionable spot ‘rezonings’ that fly in the face of the official Berea plan. The 317 Currie Road integrity report that the DA refers to here, was in fact leaked to Save Our Berea several months ago. We had officially requested sight of it going back to the first High Court hearing, but the City refused to hand it over, obliging us to apply via PAIA for access. Access to a document such as this, is our constitutional right, and of course, the constitutional right of every resident on the Berea. Still the report was denied to all of us. More pertinent, the report was also denied to the Supreme Court of Appeal by the municipality’s legal team,” they said.
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