KwaDukuza Municipality denies whistleblower corruption allegations

The KwaDukuza Municipality (KDM) has denied, in detail, a series of allegations made against high ranking municipal officials in a whistleblower letter to the Public Protector.

The anonymous letter, seen by the Courier, contained widespread allegations of corrupt activities in municipal processes.

A response from the Public Protector as to whether the allegations warrant further investigation is expected by Friday this week.

Addressing the contents of the letter, KDM issued the Courier with a 33 page response totalling some 8 500 words on Tuesday morning.

To view and read the document in its entirety, download it here

The municipality said they believe there is an ongoing smear campaign against the leadership of the municipality and that the allegations made in the letter were largely baseless.

In brief, the letter made nine main allegations.

1) Following storm damages to infrastructure in 2019, the municipal manager (MM) Nhlanhla Mdakane bypassed municipal procedures to appoint contractors for repairs.

KDM denied the version of events in the letter, citing Supply Chain Management (SCM) regulations and the fact that an impartial company was commissioned to give a report to the Municipal Public Accounts Committee, which was later adopted by council.

2) Currently suspended Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Shamir Rajcoomar faced “extreme resistance” to have the matter investigated.

The municipality said that investigations were done by KDM’s internal audit department, which faced their own resistance from the CFO. This aside from the independent report on the matter.

3) The independent company hired to write the report had previously been hired by KDM as contractors on large projects and could therefore not be impartial.

KDM said the company was legally appointed to the contractor’s panel and the work they did had provided widespread benefit to KwaDukuza. They acknowledged an ongoing legal dispute with the company but reserved further comment.

4) Following further storms in 2020, the infrastructure that had been repaired again needed fixing, indicating subpar workmanship.

The municipality indicated that they had seen no storm damage in 2020. If referencing flood damage in 2021, they said, the damages were a result of a tragic event and had no grounds for poor workmanship.

5) KDM incurred irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure as a result of the above projects. Auditor General reports flagged deviations from established SCM processes.

The municipality denies improper procedures and cited the fact that irregular expenditure had dropped by over R3-million in the 2021/2022 financial year, indicating fair municipal response on the issue.

6) The municipal manager funnelled money through a previously implicated cash and carry store to facilitate kickbacks.

KDM said that only the cash and carry store could respond properly on the matter and that the allegations against the MM were unwarranted and undeserving of a response.

7) KDM Mayor, Lindile Nhaca, is involved in a series of corrupt activities with her friend, head of economic planning and development at KDM, Sikhumbuzo Hlongwane.

The municipality denied a close friendship between the pair and detailed a series of municipal safeguards which prevent the alleged corrupt activities.

8) As previously reported in the Courier, the African National Congress was accused of paying the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) for voting support in the KwaDukuza council.

KDM again denied the allegations of impropriety (the EFF has also denied them) and called on anyone with firm evidence of the payment to come forward so it could be properly investigated.

9) Current municipal officials are implicated in the non-fulfilment of the Rocky Park Housing project which has cost tens of millions of rands and remains incomplete.

The municipality denied that the officials were culpable for the issues at Rocky Park and provided a detailed oversight of how municipal payments flow, which they say exonerate those mentioned.

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