THE Ekurhuleni ANC has accused the DA of “cheap and opportunistic politics” after the Ekurhuleni opposition party made claims that the ruling party was sweeping under the carpet SIU (Special Investigations Unit) investigations into the alleged irregular awarding of a R31-million tender.
The investigations link Ekurhuleni city manager, Khaya Ngema, to the alleged irregular tender.
ANC chief whip Clr Robert Mashego, said the ANC was not shocked by the DA’s accusations and that unfortunately, the style of cheap politicking adopted by the opposition party blinded them from making informed decisions.
“It is not surprising that the DA has taken this route of accusing the ANC on this matter. They accuse us of everything anyway. They are the opposition and they will use any opportunity to portray themselves as saints at our expense,” Mashego said.
“This attitude of opportunistic and cheap politics ends up blinding the DA from making informed decisions on issues.”
While the ANC agrees that the process of implementing the council’s resolution on the matter has taken too long, the ruling party understands and respects the explanation provided to them by Ngema regarding to the procedures of the case and why he had opted to take the route of the forensic investigation. The party said it would also allow for all due process to be followed before acting on the matter.
“We called in the city manager to explain this matter to us because we were also concerned about the progress in terms of the implementation of the council resolution. He explained the process involved and why he had opted for the route of the forensic investigation and we understood.
“The ANC subscribes and respects labour laws, hence the decision to allow for all due process to be followed before acting on the matter.
“The matter is now at the hands of the SIU and has also been brought to the attention of the MEC for Local Government and the Auditor General as per the council resolution.”
Mashego also responded to the call made by the DA to have the city manager suspended pending the investigations. Mashego described this call by the DA as “ill-informed and premature, considering that the forensic report hasn’t been seen yet”.
“After being informed by legal experts that it would be detrimental and/or even result in a litigation against council to circulate the report to all councillors before the people who are cited are given a chance to respond to it, we immediately demanded that this process be speeded up so that councillors can get the report as soon as possible and deliberate on it.
“This will be finalised in time before the next council meeting on August 28 and the forensic report will then be handed out to all councillors for deliberation on that day.”
Mashego concludes that as much as the ANC government has a duty to protect public funds and rid the system of any corruption, in so doing it has to ensure that correct procedure is followed.
“We know that we have the duty to protect public funds and root out corruption. We shall do that. However, in doing this we do not want to be reckless and play to the gallery with the lives of other people. We must make sure that all due process is followed so that the desired outcome is achieved. As the ANC government we subscribe to clean governance and remain confident of our record in dealing with corruption in Ekurhuleni, which speaks for itself.”
