Council to decide whether to press criminal charges against De Lille

With just under two weeks left until she steps down as mayor of Cape Town, Patricia De Lille could be facing criminal charges if Cape Town councillors follow the recommendation of a forensic report which states that criminal charges should be considered against her and several other officials.

According to Sowetan, the report claims De Lille and former city manager Achmat Ebrahim broke the law when they failed to tell the council about irregular payments related to Volvo bus chasses in 2015.

The 2‚000-page report which also probed Craig Kesson’s allegations against de Lille was compiled by law firm Bowman Gilfillan and an electronic copy was sent to councillors on Saturday.

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The report also fingers mayoral committee member for transport and urban development Brett Herron and suspended transport and urban development authority commissioner Melissa Whitehead for alleged misconduct in the tender process for electric buses.

Bowman Gilfillan’s report recommends that suspected fraud and corruption in tender proceedings relating to electric buses supplied by Chinese bus manufacturing giant BYD be reported to the police as per the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.

This is Bowman Gilfillan’s second report into transport for Cape Town. The first was publicly rejected by De Lille citing factual inaccuracies which she claimed she asked the law firm to correct before publishing a final copy of the report but they did not.

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