Ousted Stellenbosch municipal manager Bruce Kannemeyer has spoken out for the first time since his axing in 2006 and following recent claims that his administration was involved in an alleged corrupt land tender transaction.
Kannemeyer, now the municipal manager of the O R Tambo district council in Mthatha, Eastern Cape, is now threatening to sue the embattled Stellenbosch council, claiming that the conclusions of a council appointed forensic probe into the property tender was "unsubstantiated and unverified".
"Nowhere in the process of investigating this tender have I been consulted," Kannemeyer said.
"When they arrived at a conclusion, they still didn't seek my comments. They also did not take proper care to keep this document confidential until they had spoken to everyone who is implicated.
"They have made no attempt to contact me," he said.
"Unless they remedy some of the mistakes that they have done, I am taking them to court," he said.
Kannemeyer claimed he had sent the Stellenbosch municipality a lawyer's letter requesting a copy of the forensic report and information on his alleged involvement in the tender controversy.
He said he would wait for a response to the letter before deciding on a course of action.
"Certainly I would have given them insights into the process. I engineered the process. I was the accounting officer.
It seems they have spoken to everyone else, except the accounting officer.
"Then there is something not right about that process," he said.
The forensic probe found that the process involving the tendering of seven properties was flawed and recommended that Stellenbosch overturn the contracts.
Earlier in August, current municipal manager Dave Daniels told the council that the contracts were "not fair, equitable, transparent, competitive and consistent with supply chain management policy".
However Kannemeyer, who was given a R2-million golden handshake to vacate his position, has hit back at the council and claims that the land transaction deal was faultless.
"Not a single one of the developers has taken this process under review, only the council does. Why? This council is using tax-payers' money to do someone's bidding. The question is whose?" asked Kannemeyer.
"If I was given another opportunity to do this again, I would not change anything I have done in this land transaction process.
The process was thorough, transparent and competitive," he added.
Kannemeyer also claimed that the land deal would have resulted in a R1-billion investment in Stellenbosch, the injection of about R120-million into council coffers, the creation of 4 000 jobs, a broadening of the corporate tax base in the town and created a major boost for black economic empowerment in the province.