Port Elizabeth - Nelson Mandela Bay Executive Mayor, Athol Trollip, wants the metro to freeze a contract with a Johannesburg media company, Mohlaleng Media.
This after The Herald published a report which outlined the company having free reign to spend as it pleased after a cap of R10 million had been lifted.
The newspaper reported that payments to Mohlaleng included an amount of R771 552 paid to two media specialists, Grant Pascoe and Vukile Pokwana, over five months to “beef up” the communications unit.
In recent months, in the run up to the Local Government Elections, Pascoe and Pokwana worked closely alongside former Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor Danny Jordaan.
Pokwana is a former journalist, while Pascoe is a former DA heavyweight in the City of Cape Town who defected to the African National Congress (ANC) in recent years.
Trollip issued a statement on Wednesday and stated that he had asked acting City Manager, Johan Mettler, to freeze the contract.
He said he was disturbed to learn that more than R21-million had already been paid to Mohlaleng Media, some of which was allegedly used to remunerate political appointments under the former administration.
Trollip said that it beared the hallmarks of an irregular contract which is adequate grounds to freeze the contract and call for an urgent investigation.
“This administration will not tolerate irregular, wasteful or unnecessary expenditure, in any form, and any contract that is alleged to have facilitated any expenditure of this nature will be fully investigated and scrutinised,” he said.
African News Agency