Port Elizabeth – The African National Congress (ANC) in the Nelson Mandela Bay has “dismissed with contempt” Democratic Alliance (DA) criticism of the appointment of former Correctional Services boss Linda Mti as the metro’s head of safety and security.
The former World Cup 2010 security boss will ultimately be at the helm of heading up the city’s much anticipated metro police service which has been in the making for at least six years.
On Thursday the municipality said that the metro police launch had been postponed and would now only take place mid May.
The DA recently slated Nelson Mandela Bay executive mayor Danny Jordaan for hiring a “convicted criminal”.
In 2008 Mti was found guilty of drunk and negligent driving in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court. Mti was nearly three times over the legal limit when he crashed into another vehicle in February 2005.
The DA said Mti, a former commissioner of Correctional Services‚ was still under a Hawks investigation for alleged fraud involving about R2 billion worth of tenders awarded to the Bosasa group.
The tenders were awarded between 2004 and 2006‚ while Mti was employed by the Correctional Services department. An open docket has been with the NPA since 2009.
However, ANC Regional Task Team Member Bamanye Ntshona accused DA mayoral candidate Athol Trollip of attempting to grab headlines with “fallacious” accusations.
“The ANC does not condone the offence of drunken driving which Mr Mti committed, but it believes that he cannot be prohibited from making a contribution to society and in particular, the municipality of his birth because of it,” said Ntshona.
“The ANC also wishes to dismiss with contempt, the attempt by the Democratic Alliance to question the process of Mr Mti’s appointment whereas they were part of, and approved a council resolution appointing Mr Mti after receiving full report on the processes leading to thereto.
“The ANC has full confidence that the administration and council would not have entertained any recruitment that had irregularities.”
Ntshona said: “Instead of clutching at straws” in the Nelson Mandela Metro, the DA “would do well” to explain why they kept DA councillor in Cape Town, Sam Pienaar, as their member.
Ntshona said Pienaar was “the butcher responsible for the murder of three defenceless youths while he was a member of the notorious apartheid security police force in the infamous Trojan horse massacre in Athlone, Cape Town in 1985”.
“Trollip indeed has a warped sense of justice. He is the one who enthusiastically welcomed King Dalindyebo to the Democratic Alliance in 2013 when the King had been convicted and sentenced assault, with the intent to do grievous bodily harm, arson and culpable homicide, charges for which he is now serving a prison sentence,” said Ntshona.
He said if Trollip was “so committed to justice”, he should reach out to the people of Bedford, who have accused him and his father of racist and inhuman treatment at their family farm.
“We are yet to see Trollip condemn Sam Pienaar, King Dalindyebo and racists like Dianne Kohler Barnard, Chris Roberts and others,” said Ntshona.
“The people of Nelson Mandela know the difference between their liberators and their oppressors. They will not reward Trollip and his racist ilk in the DA with the position of executive mayor of this metro. He must start packing to return home to Bedford to face his demons.”
African News Agency