Small Farm residents have to walk on this road that has sewage running through it. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
As service delivery continues to collapse, Emfuleni Local Municipality has spent more than R8 million in a legal wrangle with its chief financial officer. He is still sitting at home on suspension, despite being allowed by a court to resume his job after he was refused admission to municipal premises.
Andile Dyakala was cleared of most of the charges that were brought against him in a disciplinary hearing last year.
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Despite being ordered to resume his duties in August of last year, Dyakala was barred from entering Emfuleni’s offices and has since then been getting his monthly salary.
Kingsol Chabalala from the Democratic Alliance (DA) says the cash-strapped municipality spent R1.6 million of Dyakala’s salary and a further R6.5 million in legal fees in trying to get him dismissed. He said this information was revealed by Gauteng MEC for corporate governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) Mzi Khumalo in a written reply to the DA questions in provincial legislature.
Dyakala said he feels victimised for merely raising the red flag on alleged corruption at the troubled municipality.
Three charges brought against him were alleged transgressions of supply chain management (SCM) policies – and he was found not guilty on all three, because it was found he was executing an unlawful instruction from former executive mayor Rev. Gift Moerane.
He was also charged with irregular extension of employment contracts for staff in political office – which, he says, was done on written instruction from Moerane. On that charge, he was found guilty on August 5 last year, given a final written warning and instructed to resume work immediately.
Dyakala says when he arrived at his workplace, he was stopped from returning to work by the former municipal manager who stated that the outcome of the disciplinary hearing must be tabled at council.
“In September 2022, council resolved that the outcome of hearing must be taken for review and it must be noted that the Labour Relations Act does allow the employer to take its own decisions for review.
“The lawyers of the municipality wrote to me instructing me that while they are taking the matter on review as per council resolution, I must remain suspended despite the fact that there was no council resolution that states I must remain suspended,” said Dyakala.
He stated that he has since referred the matter to the Labour Court which said that they do not have jurisdiction. It is the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) that has jurisdiction on suspensions.
“The matter is currently at the CCMA and I still remain suspended and I am earning a salary while sitting at home,” Dyakala said.
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He added that he had written to then Cogta MEC Lebogang Maile in August last year, warning that the action of the municipality would lead to fruitless and wasteful expenditure in an organisation which was already in a precarious financial position.
The troubled started with a letter Dyakala wrote in March last year to the auditor-general (AG) alerting the office to possible fraud and corruption regarding a short-term insurance tender at Emfuleni.
The contract included a “broker fee”, which would have cost the municipality an additional R57.6 million over three years.
When approached for comment on the matter, Emfuleni mayoral spokesperson Makhosonke Sangweni would not comment, saying the matter is sub-judice.
The DA’s Chabalala said: “It is worrying that the residents of Emfuleni continue to suffer from a lack of service delivery while millions are wasted on an individual sitting at home.
“This is an insult to the people of Emfuleni who endure potholes, sewer leakages, and uncollected refuse daily,” Chabalala added.
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