Durban - The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) has launched a forensic investigation into alleged corruption at Umkhanyakude District Municipality.
Provincial Cogta spokesperson Senzo Mzila said: “The department will be launching an investigation into a number of projects within the municipality and it will also look into allegations of maladministration and statutory non-compliance by officials.”
The northern KwaZulu-Natal municipality has been battling water provision challenges, which resulted in community protests two weeks ago.
The community has also been complaining about poor conditions of roads in the area.
Residents also claimed they were sharing water with livestock, even though they were in proximity to one of the country’s biggest dams, Jozini.
Speaking to The Mercury yesterday, district mayor Solo Mkhombo said they were ready to co-operate with the investigation. According to Mkhombo, the allegations included tender irregularities, incomplete work done by some service providers, mismanagement of funds and fraud.
Mkhombo said they would allow the process to unfold to show that the municipality was willing to deal with issues of service delivery.
“Once the investigation has been concluded, we will then be able to make a comprehensive comment.”
He said the municipality had previously stopped mysterious invoices which, if they were not vigilant, would have cost the municipality millions.
Mkhombo said (one of) the invoices was for the investigation report - about 100 pages - for R26million.
“If you divide R26m by 100 pages you wonder how much the pages cost. We stopped that invoice and it’s part of the investigation. The invoice has not been withdrawn yet, as it’s still in our system. It is clear that there was an act of trying to defraud the institution.”
Ubumbano Lokuthula Organisation, a non-profit organisation fighting for service delivery in communities, has also threatened to bring the district to a standstill, demanding that urgent action be taken against officials involved in irregularities.
Chairperson Andile Hlatshwayo, together with other leaders of the community, submitted a memorandum to the district offices. They want the municipality to urgently provide water to the community.
“We demand the municipality to provide, with immediate effect, decent sanitation to all our communities to restore their dignity. We demand that all tender irregularities be investigated with immediate effect,” reads the memorandum.
Hlatshwayo called for KZN premier Sihle Zikalala, Cogta MEC Sipho Hlomuka and Mkhombo to speed up the investigation, saying they had seven days to respond to their grievances.
The Mercury