Durban — The SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) in eThekwini has appealed to mayor Mxolisi Kaunda to investigate the apparent involvement of city manager Musa Mbhele in an alleged plot to destabilise the city’s electricity unit.
The Daily News on Wednesday revealed that Mbhele is a member of the WhatsApp group Save eThekwini Electricity where the plot to remove electricity unit head Maxwell Mthembu was allegedly hatched.
Reacting to the exposé, the union’s regional secretary Xolani Dube said on Wednesday that he had written to Mbhele, questioning him about this group. He also urged him to investigate its origin and purpose since it was attacking a Samwu member – Mthembu.
He said he was added to the group, but no one explained why it was created.
Dube said after a post that was clearly attacking Mthembu, he wrote to the City but Mbhele never acknowledged receipt of the union’s letter.
“We warned Mbhele about this group and asked him to investigate, but he ignored us. This left us with questions about whether the City knew and was part of the group vilifying our member. Since Mbhele did not respond to us we are now urging the mayor to institute an inquiry into this. Besides being the head of the unit, Mthembu is a member of Samwu, therefore we have a duty to defend him from persecution by anyone,” said Dube.
The letter dated November 28, 2022 addressed to the city manager by Dube and seen by the paper partly read: “Dear Mbhele, it has been brought to our attention that a social media group titled ‘Save eThekwini Electricity’ was created on or about November 4, 2022. In this group apparently among others there (are) many senior eThekwini Municipality employees, Samwu regional secretary, and yourself were added. There are also names of politicians in the same group.
“What prompted us to write to you is the fact that there are serious allegations made against our member Maxwell Mthembu. Some sensitive and confidential documents are being shared in this group chat. We as Samwu view this as a very malicious attack on our member on a platform where he was unable to defend himself.
“Accordingly, Samwu requests that your office does the following:
1. Investigate the origin of this group.
2. Investigate how you, Samwu regional secretary, and senior staff of eThekwini Municipality were added to this group.
3. Investigate how confidential documents shared in this group were obtained.”
Furthermore, the union asked Mbhele to investigate other related matters which may not have been cited in the group and provide the way forward in resolving such a situation.
Dube said despite being given seven days to respond the city manager never replied, hence the appeal for the mayor’s intervention as a political principal of the city manager.
A city manager is responsible for the entire administration of the municipality, therefore that individual is an accounting officer while the mayor gives political direction.
Despite being warned about the group, Mbhele did not alert his deputy manager responsible for the electricity unit, Sibusiso Makhanya, who said he was not added to the group although it looked like it was created to save a department he was in charge of.
Makhanya said he was informed about the group, but he did not pay much attention to it but since it had been brought to his attention that the city manager was part of it, he would speak to him to find out what was happening.
The latest information about the group was that journalists were also added which now bolstered the claims that it was created to assassinate Mthembu’s character.
This paper has also learnt that there were a few ANC councillors who were added, but it was unclear what role they played. It appeared that besides being in the group with opposition parties that are clearly on a “warpath” with the ANC-led council, the councillors whose names are known to the paper did not report the group to the regional leadership.
Asked about it on Tuesday, Mlondi Mkhize the ANC’s regional spokesperson said the party did not know about the group.
In a written response, Mbhele said: “The office of the CM (city manager) does not have a record of this letter.
“If it was emailed, it could happen that following load shedding, it was not received, and if sent via Gmail, our system sometimes rejects emails or redirect them to the junk email box.
“However, trade unions are our important stakeholders. Under no circumstances shall the CM ignore them.”
Kaunda’s spokesperson, Mluleki Mntungwa, had not responded to a request for comment by the deadline for publication.
WhatsApp your views on this story to 071 485 7995
Daily News