DA to lay criminal charges against NMB mayor Mongameli Bobani

In a statement on Thursday, the DA said they would be laying criminal charges against Nelson Mandela Bay executive mayor Mongameli Bobani of the United Democratic Movement and his coalition government with the ANC after allegations of political interference in the awarding of contracts to companies surfaced in the media.

It was reported that Councillor Retief Odendaal asked that the council, on December 4, debate the alleged interference in tenders and jobs by roads and transport portfolio head Rose Daaminds.

DA Eastern Cape premier spokesperson Andrew Whitfield said in his statement that, in terms of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA), paying contractors before any work had been done was illegal, but the coalition government had allegedly done exactly this.

“No company can therefore be paid without doing the work. Adding to this, these companies referred to are not even listed on the municipality’s supply chain database,” said Whitfield.

He said the alleged instruction by Bobani, “and others within his failing ANC-led coalition of corruption, to take millions of rands from budgets earmarked for infrastructure and engineering, and the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) to forcibly create opportunities and ‘work packages’ for companies”, would come at the expense of critical service delivery projects.

“These actions will take money away from the residents of NMB and hand it over to a connected few.

“The alleged R8 million to be taken from the EPWP budget will lead to the Metro not being able to create EPWP jobs for the rest of the 2017/18 financial year.

“Taking money from EPWP will deny fair access to jobs to those who are in the most dire need.”

He said that when the DA-led coalition had governed the city, much was done to increase EPWP opportunities.

“During our 24-month tenure in government we tripled the number of EPWP jobs created annually and created a fairer EPWP work allocation system. This translated into the creation of almost 5,500 EPWP jobs.”

Last month, just two months after its own mayor, Athol Trollip, was voted out in a motion of no confidence in Nelson Mandela Bay, the DA said it would try to return the favour by bringing its own motion against Bobani.

The party alleged that since Bobani took over in coalition with the ANC, African Independent Congress and the United Front, supported by the EFF, service delivery and financial management had taken a major nosedive.

The party’s premier candidate, Nqaba Bhanga, said that the city’s collection rate had dropped to 78.7% in September because “the city has not been issuing municipal accounts for the last two months”.

“In spite of this, residents have been charged interest on late account payments and in certain instances reconnection fees where their accounts were suspended due to not paying on the due date.”

Bobani has defended his mayoral decisions as being in the best interests of the residents and that he has prioritised the poor people of the city more than the DA was doing.

(Edited and compiled by Charles Cilliers)

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