Hawks finish investigation into GMM
Zuma also said that, long ago, the council took a resolution to appoint a service provider to vet every employee. The post, advertised three times, saw no company appointed.
The Govan Mbeki Municipality (GMM) mayor, Nhlakanipho Zuma, told the council the Hawks had finished their Section 106 report investigation and the outcome went to the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) for a decision.
This forensic investigation, done in 2019, implicated several high-ranking councillors, politicians, officials and business people.
Zuma presented the report on behalf of the Cogta MEC, Mandla Msibi, for the council’s acknowledgement earlier this month.
“The MEC wants the council to acknowledge the report so the matters in the report can be acted upon or closed,” he explained.
Opposition parties, however, demanded the report go back to the MEC. They claimed it was incomplete and lacked an action plan.
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DA Clr James Masango said Zuma did not present a progress report to the council but merely letters of conversation between Zuma and the MEC.
“We are waiting for the mayor to elaborate on actions that must be taken against those implicated in the Section 106 report, such as councillors, employees and service providers.
“Those councillors have never been to the Ethics Committee, and we also do not know the court outcome of the implicated service providers who challenged the report,” said Masango.
EFF Clr Wilson Chauke said the report was not progressive, calling it a “political arrangement”. Chauke said the people implicated presided over the report.
“We want the MEC to send someone neutral to present the report. We want to know what actions have been taken against them since 2019.
“All the perpetrators should have been behind bars by now,” said Chauke.
During the recent council sitting, Zuma also proposed that municipal manager Elliot Maseko urgently determine which employees were delaying the appointment of a service provider responsible for vetting employees.
The council decided all employees’ qualifications and criminal records, among others, should be verified, but even after advertising three times, no service provider was appointed for this job.
Zuma said the municipal manager must take disciplinary action against the culprits and then present the council with a progress report.
MEC Msibi told Ridge Times last week that the municipality was implementing the recommendations in the report.
He said part of those recommendations was that the municipality must submit its annual financial statements (AFS) to the Autor-General (AG) before the deadline, which it did.
“Previously, this municipality obtained disclaimers from the AG after the audit because the AFS were submitted late, but that was corrected.
“The report is there, and it is for the council to implement an action plan, not my office,” said Msibi.
Msibi also said the speaker should be the one who implements some of the recommendations. He said although some councillors wanted the report referred back to his office, it was not yet with him.
