The Public Protector has released a damning report on the political and financial shenanigans of a previous Emfuleni municipality regime
hell-bent on awarding a R50 million Opulentia insurance contract to its own nominee and avoiding accountability for irregular decisions.
The Public Protector also exposed as a complete sham and farce the so-called Comperio Forensics Report into corruption at the Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM), which was given widely to national media despite a Vaalweekblad/Ster investigation exposing it as a politically motivated and doctored shell.
Especially-damning however was the finding on how senior ELM officials manipulated political processes and avoided accountability by having council meetings postponed until they had left or by simply refusing to table reports – again as exposed by Vaalweekblad/Ster at the time. These officials also manipulated the ELM Council of the time to vote to wrongfully suspend then-Municipal Manager Lucky Leseane, who was later re-instated by the Labour Court.
The report, dated 28 February 2024, on the basis of an anonymous complainant, found that it was irregularly awarded – despite a tender process still under way – by former acting Municipal Manager Oupa Nkoane and with former CFO Andile Dyakala also mentioned.
“Due to Mr Dyakala’s influence at the Municipal council, reports that the Municipal Council should have discussed to address Mr Dyakala’s
conduct were shifted and not tabled to protect him,” the Public Protector found.
Additionally, the report also fingers almost the entire top management corps of Executive Directors at ELM at the time – pre2021 – as complicit in the Opulentia Affair but who are now listed by the Public Protector as having resigned.
But the report does not recommend further action against Nkoane and Dyakala as the former’s contract expired and Dyakala was fired in
2023 after a mammoth lawfare battle with ELM. No further action against the former Executive directors was recommended either.
Nkoane and Dyakala conducted a reign of terror at ELM for years – also impoverishing many service providers through non-payment of
invoices – and sparking a virtual civil war in the governing Sedibeng ANC which pitted against then Executive Mayor Reverend Gift Moerane.
Nkoane and Dyakala also illegally ended ELM’s BXC smart meter programme, which cost ultimately more than R1 billion losses in revenue
and the loss of more than 100 decent jobs in 2019.
So damaging was the mismanagement of the duo and their political influence in Council, that the Sedibeng ANC purged almost all of its
Councillors before the 2021 municipal elections and now governs Emfuleni in a coalition government with a new slate. Vaalweekblad/
Ster reported extensively at the time on how then-Council Speaker Maipato “Chu Chu Shoes” Tsokolibane colluded with Nkoane and Dyakala to postpone council meetings to avoid consequence management for the two.
Tsokolibane also once claimed a council meeting – one of many – was cancelled due to the public address system being stolen from inside council – however the sound system was rapidly found after a major uproar, also exposed by Vaalweekblad/Ster.