By Craig Kotze
Captured elements in ELM top management are waging a full-scale disinformation and dirty tricks campaign to escape accountability for massive corruption and gross mismanagement after a crucial third special council meeting was cancelled last week.
Using official resources, the smear campaign targets organised business, uncaptured officials, the media and politicians to prevent both exposure and action against top ELM officials linked to huge unauthorised spending and gross dereliction of duty.
This is revealed by evidence in Mooivaal Media’s possession and by a spectrum of political, business and official sources still left reeling by the ease with which accountability efforts at ELM have been sidestepped.
It was clear that the council meeting cancellation was orchestrated to protect top officials implicated in municipal capture and to silence especially those exposing mismanagement and corruption at ELM, including the media, according to several other sources.
At least two top ELM officials were expected to face possible disciplinary action and suspension at the cancelled council meeting:
Former Municipal Manager Dithaba Oupa Nkoane – linked to an irregular unauthorised security contract extension of almost R300 million and for initiating and mismanaging meter replacements, and Andile Dyakala, who as ELM Chief Financial Officer is also linked to contractual and financial aspects of the meter replacement disaster.
Golden Triangle Chamber of Commerce (GTCoC) CEO Klippies Kritzinger has repeatedly insisted on the suspension and investigation of both Nkoane and Dyakala and before the council meeting cancellation he issued a plea to councillors to hold the two accountable.
The disinformation and dirty tricks smear campaign was evident through officials being protected from accountability through cancelling the council meeting and the “ridiculous” reason given for cancelling last Friday’s meeting for the third time in a row, said informed sources.
The cancellation has enraged the GTCoC and the Democratic Alliance who have separately rejected the excuse given – “theft or misplacement of council microphones”, supposedly only discovered once the meeting had already started.
“Dirty tricks are clearly evident because what has happened to expensive council property? It seems to have been deliberately stolen or misplaced to prevent the meeting from going ahead,” said one political source.
The cancellation also stopped Executive Mayor Gift Moerane’s third attempt to table reports and action plans on both the R900 million Comperio corruption report and also the meter replacement disaster which has already cost ELM an estimated R40million.
Moerane has a fiduciary duty and thus compelled by Law to do such reporting but has so far been thwarted by captured elements inside ELM who are playing for time.
Council was also to have approved the short-listing of candidates for a permanent Municipal Manager. Delaying this process could mean that an unsuspended Nkoane – who is apparently now still the Administrator of ELM – could remain in place for much longer and stall meaningful clean-up and efficiency efforts at ELM.
“The reason given was that the microphones were stolen. This is ridiculous. How does the Speaker, Maipato Tsokolibane, allow undermining of council, the democratic process and holding top officials accountable? This is so clearly part of a dirty tricks campaign and many people are reporting they are being targeted,” said one source.
Tsokolibane told Mooivaal Media over the weekend she could not hold a council meeting “without reports” but refused to clarify which reports and from whom they emanated, and also refused to clarify differing versions for cancellation.
She also did not respond to questions on whether a case of theft had been opened with Police on the “stolen” microphones.
GTCoC’s Kritzinger slammed the council meeting cancellation – especially after two prior cancellations – by Speaker Tsokolibane as “highly suspicious” and said the independence of the ELM council Speaker would now be questioned.
“It is now clear the third cancellation is part of a delaying strategy by implicated officials to escape accountability on both the Comperio R900 million corruption report and the meter replacement disaster which undermines ELM financial recovery,” said one political source.
Two DA councillors closely involved in ELM governance and financial affairs, Clrs Edward von Bodenstein and Phillip Nothnagel, also slammed the cancellation by Tsokolibane.
“Everything at the municipality has collapsed. Very important decisions that need to be made are being stalled.
“ELM simply cannot go on like this any longer and this really supports the DA’s proposal that ELM should be placed under full administration,” said Nothnagel.
Von Bodenstein said the DA would press the Mayor to give an accounting of what had happened and that the ANC had “become irrelevant to the broader needs of society” and that voters should give the DA five years to set things right.
ELM did not respond to requests for comment on officials using official resources and time to conduct disinformation campaigns to avoid exposure and accountability.