uMngeni mayor Chris Pappas confirms the municipality funds his fiancé’s NPO

DA’s aspiring KwaZulu-Natal premier, Mayor Chris Pappas, has confirmed that Umngeni Municipality funds NPOs, including one run by his fiancé.

Pappas came under fire this week after former DA member Sizwe Mchunu lodged a complaint with the Public Protector’s office, accusing the mayor of nepotism and corruption after his fiancé, JP Prinsloo, was appointed as the chairperson of UMngeni Tourism, an NPO funded by the municipality, and received excessive grants.

Not denying the allegations

Speaking on Ukhozi FM, Pappas did not deny his finance’s NPO received R100,000. 

He said uMngeni Tourism was one of three NPOs that were funded by the municipality. 

Pappas said uMngeni Tourism was established before he took over as mayor. 

He denied his fiancé’s other company, Growth Spurt Consultancy (GSC), got a tender as a consultant to uMngeni Tourism in hosting the Light Up uMngeni Festival last December. 

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Pappas said GSC was only registered last month. 

“How can a company only registered in this year get tenders that did not even exist in 2021? That does not make any sense. Also, why is all of this coming out now, but these people claimed they’ve known about these allegations for a while,” said the mayor. 

He said the allegations brought forward by Mchunu were not new. He had been cleared before. 

Spousal nepotism and corruption

In a letter to the Public Protector’s office, Mchunu accused Pappas of “spousal nepotism and corruption”. 

“When Chris Pappas left his previous political position as DA’s representative in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature, his fiancé, who was serving as a councillor under eThekwini Municipality, also resigned and relocated to uMngeni Municipality, supposedly to be closer to his fiancé. In his resignation, Prinsloo pointed out that he resigned to further his business career NPO,” read the letter. 

“It has since emerged uMngeni Tourism NPO, chaired by J P Prinsloo, has been given a R100,000 grant by uMngeni Municipality, while the top five tourism entities/organisations operating within the municipality received R10,000 each per month.”

Mchunu also alleged uMngeni tourism NPO received R100,000 weeks before the municipality closed for the December holidays in 2022, four months before the end of the council’s financial year.

“Besides this being a precedent that has never occurred in uMngeni Municipality, the amount granted to Prinsloo’s organisation far exceeds any of the grants given to the other entities advocating exactly a similar venture. 

“To this end, there has been no sight of any documents by both uMngeni Tourism and the municipality justifying the necessity of this ludicrous precedent and exception in favour of Prinsloo’s organisation. There also is no evidence of any expenditure plan/breakdown presented by Prinsloo’s organisation regarding how exactly they were to spend their enormous grant.”

Mchunu claimed GSC was already operating before it was registered. 

“The above forms the basis for a need for investigation of a case of nepotism and corruption by Mayor Chris Pappas and uMngeni Municipality. I thus humbly submit to the Public Protector that the DA-run uMngeni Municipality has to answer to the above-mentioned desecrations.”

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