Third protection order sought against suspended ELM CFO

Dyakala’s unresolved suspension and massive legal fees attached to both his independent disciplinary hearing and his full pay whilst sitting at home in Midrand are reportedly over R8 million at present.

The latest court application is being made by his former boss and ELM Municipal Manager Lucky Leseane on the basis of abusive and threatening social media communication and is expected to again be heard in the Booysens Magistrate’s Courts in Johannesburg on May 4.

Dyakala also faces additional internal disciplinary steps on the same issue after Leseane formally submitted a written complaint to ELM Executive Mayor Sipho Radebe, on the basis that a suspended official was allegedly committing further disciplinary offences.

ELM has yet to comment formally on the status of both Dyakala’s suspension and Leseane’s complaint regarding abuse, but technically his suspension is still under legal review after he was found guilty late last year by an independent legal panel of bringing his employer into disrepute.

However, he received such a lenient slap on the wrist – only a warning – that it caused a major outcry within ELM and from the Emfuleni business community resulting in the municipality sending the case for review to the Johannesburg Labour Court.

ELM sources say the municipality is trying to prevent Dyakala from claiming constructive dismissal by playing the matter strictly by the book.

The current protection order application will, if granted next week, be the third protection order in place against Dyakala in recent years.

His extensive anger management issues and incidents have resulted in allegations of smear campaigns conducted by him against prominent Emfuleni media and business figures as well as his own superiors at ELM.

The first protection order taken out against him was for severe online gender abuse against another superior, then acting Executive Mayor Khetiwe Ntombela who was verbally assaulted during a Zoom meeting by Dyakala.

This was followed last year by a second protection order granted to then Golden Triangle Chamber of Commerce President Klippies Kritzinger after Dyakala sent him death threats on WhatsApp.

Extensive investigations by Vaalweekblad in recent years have shown Dyakala destroying ELM’s first smart meter programme together with former acting Municipal Manager Oupa Nkoane which cost ELM almost R1billion in lost revenue and saw a massive surge in illegal power connections.

The ELM smart meter programme was later re-instated by court order in a landmark R500 million settlement granted to service provider BXC, now back in Emfuleni expanding what is widely regarded as the best programme of its kind in Gauteng.

Dyakala has also been central to ELM’s ongoing R6 billion Eskom debt saga and its R1 billion Rand Water debt by mismanaging these accounts several years ago already – something which the municipality is still struggling to recover from.

Former Executive Mayor Gift Moerane also lambasted Dyakala as incompetent in a public  council meeting several years ago when the extent of the mismanagement of bulk utility service provider accounts such as Eskom became clear.

Another Vaalweekblad investigation at the time also caught Dyakala out after he attempted to hide the extent of the Eskom debt crisis from his political superiors by withholding a key letter of demand sent by Eskom to ELM.

Dyakala, who was appointed full-time CFO at ELM by Nkoane, has a contract with ELM set to expire in 2024 if he is not dismissed.