Former city manager Michael Sutcliffe has fired again at Co-operative Governance MEC Nomusa Dube, accusing her of acting in a racist way in her handling of the Manase report into the eThekwini Municipality’s finances.
But the MEC’s office has roundly rejected the claim, saying race had nothing to do with it and that her actions had been proper and beyond reproach.
Speaking to the Daily News from abroad, Sutcliffe said he would take the matter up with senior ANC leadership after assessing the report and the MEC’s statements in detail.
“I do believe that it is part of a racist strategy by her to rid the city of competent progressive professionals who will not toe her line.
“I will be requesting the ANC leadership investigate what I believe was deliberate racism towards progressive whites and Indians by the MEC, including those like me who have served loyally in ANC leadership positions.
“I believe the MEC acted in a racist way, deliberately wanting my colleagues and I to be subjected to public humiliation before I had a chance to provide the actual facts on the specific matters cited.
“This she did after I had personally warned her of the dangers of doing this when she told me she was recommending that Krish Kumar, Cogie Pather and Derek Naidoo be disciplined, without the ‘ audi alteram partem rule’ (the principle that no person should be judged without a fair hearing in which each party is given the opportunity to respond) having been applied in their cases.
“She in fact told me that many other names were included in the follow-up actions, including Lungi Gcabashe, deputy head for housing. Why such names as Lungi’s were not included in her defamatory press statement requires response,” said Sutcliffe.
Dube’s spokesman, Lennox Mabaso, said the MEC was not going to allow herself to be drawn into Sutcliffe’s personalisation of the matter.
“The reality is that those who are accountable for the irregularities will be made to account, and this has nothing to do with race. This is not an investigation called for by the MEC in her personal capacity, but was demanded by ratepayers of the city and the ANC, which is the ruling party.
“How can Sutcliffe equate irregular expenditure amounting to R2 billion to racism?”
Mabaso said Sutcliffe was well within his rights to call for an investigation into his conspiracy theories of racism.
“His allegations are laughable, especially as the MEC has fought against racism all her life and helped to usher in a non-racist society. She will never undo everything that the struggle against racism has fought for.
“Sutcliffe needs to understand that this is about malpractice, maladministration and negligence and if he thinks all was hunky-dory during his time as city manager, then he must provide proof against the recommendations.
“We are satisfied that we acted fairly and the report was tabled by the eThekwini exco.
“Our conduct in the matter is therefore beyond reproach and the MEC will not comment any further on this issue until eThekwini is given the opportunity and space to put forward their recovery plan to her.”
However, Sutcliffe has shot back, asking: “So why not answer the simple question – why did they only focus on four individuals and not release anyone else’s name?’
The bulky Manase report is still being kept under wraps. But when Dube first revealed an 18-page summary of it to the media on Tuesday last week, Sutcliffe and other department heads questioned why they were the only ones cited – and why they had not been permitted to see the report to allow them to prepare responses.
In the Daily News last Wednesday, Sutcliffe fired the first shot at Dube by questioning why her sister, a municipal employee who had done business with the council, had not been mentioned in the summary. - Daily News