eThekwini municipal manager Sipho Nzuza, left, then-eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede, centre, and Cogta MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube at a press briefing on Thursday evening, 25 April 2019. Picture: Cogta.
Opposition political parties have called for alleged fraudster and corruption-accused eThekwini city manager Sipho Nzuza to be suspended.
He appeared in the Durban Commercial Crime Court on Tuesday where he was granted R50,000 bail for fraud- and corruption-related charges linked to the R430 million Durban Solid Waste tender.
DA eThekwini caucus leader councillor Nicole Graham has called for his immediate suspension.
“The DA calls for the council to be urgently convened to suspend him. We will write to the speaker to request her to do so.”
Graham claimed the arrest of Nzuza, the most senior official in the metro, proved corruption was rife.
“This arrest proves what the DA has insisted for some time, that the eThekwini Municipality is corrupt from the top to the bottom.”
Since 2016, she said, residents have been plagued by failing services and an “incapable City that has not been able to fulfil its constitutional basic mandate”.
“The core of this problem is that line departments and City functions have been captured by ANC councillors and comrades in their quest to loot the City’s coffers.”
IFP councillor Mdu Inkosi said the party had called for Nzuza’s arrest “a long time ago”.
“People thought we were mad. We wondered how some said he turned state witness without first being arrested. The accounting officer needs to be brought to book. Nothing was approved without his signature.”
He said he was looking forward to Nzuza giving evidence.
“I want to see if he will spill the beans. He promised the people he would do that. Now is the time city manager, people want to know what happened to that tender.”
Inkosi also called for Nzuza to be removed from office.
“We want the council to take a decision that the city manager must go home. They must take a decision because other officials have been suspended. I want to see if the leadership of the City can do what they promised. Now is the time to clean the City.”
Embattled former mayor Zandile Gumede’s spokesperson, Mzomuhle Dube who was in court during proceedings, said it was about time the axe fell on Nzuza.
“It’s better late than never. He has long been implicated as the accounting officer. I’m not sure why it took investigators this long to latch on to that information.”
Dube said he was confident Gumede would be vindicated.
“One needs to wait and see how the former mayor is affiliated to this because nothing has come forth that links her to the whole saga. We feel that more work must be done to take out the rot. The rot is huge.”
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