An internal report allegedly found that Moya's deputy, Eugene Modise, failed to disclose a financial interest in a city contractor.
City of Tshwane mayor Nasiphi Moya has yet to respond to the latest allegations by opposition parties and their call to remove the deputy mayor or face a motion of no confidence.
DA Tshwane mayoral candidate Cilliers Brink said it was time for Moya to stop dodging questions about her ANC deputy mayor and finance MMC Eugene “Bonzo” Modise and release the city’s findings on his alleged unlawful conduct.
DA demands answers on Modise’s alleged misconduct
Brink said the DA believes that there are sufficient grounds for a motion of no confidence in Modise.
“The Sunday Times reports that an internal investigation by Tshwane has found that Modise may have failed to disclose and divest his interest in a company that provides ‘watchman’ services to the municipality,” he said.
Brink said under the provisions of the Municipal Finance Management Act, it was unlawful for a councillor to have a financial interest in a service provider of the municipality.
“A special council meeting was scheduled by the mayor for Thursday last week.
“The DA expected the report on Modise’s interests to surface at this meeting. But the meeting was suddenly cancelled on Wednesday evening.
“The DA first raised concerns about Modise’s links to Triotic in February. Moya committed to investigating the matter, but Modise has continued to serve as finance MMC,” he said.
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Questions over irregular security contracts
“In June, the DA also reported the irregular extension of municipality security contracts to the auditor-general. This included Tshwane’s contract with Triotic. The city has since declared R170 million related to these contracts as irregular expenditure,” he added.
Brink said the DA has launched another probe into whether Tshwane is preventing cut-off of services to a property leased by another Modise-linked company, Mzansi Resorts (the former Morula Sun).
“Tshwane owes R23 million in arrears for property rates and water on the property.
“The owner is the North West Housing Corporation but under a lease agreement, Mzansi Resorts is responsible for the municipal bill on the property.
“Either way, services to Mzansi Resorts have not been cut. Moya has also dodged questions about this issue,” he said.
Opposition questions DA’s own handling of issue
Brink said if there was an internal report in Tshwane that implicates Modise in failing to disclose and divest his interest in a company doing business with the municipality, the mayor should already have fired him as finance MMC.
Republican Conference of Tshwane councillor Lex Middelberg said the DA had known of this conflict of interest from 2022, but did nothing about it.
“Why not? I take the deputy mayor’s convenient disinvestment in various companies where he was previously the main shareholder and CEO with a pinch of salt. This has been on the cards for a long time and should have been investigated long ago,” he said.
Middelberg said the DA had referred to this several times in 2022-23, but did nothing.
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