Johannesburg - Gauteng Cooperative Governance MEC Lebogang Maile has taken the Sedibeng District Municipality to task over allegations of corruption, nepotism and financial mismanagement linked to municipal manager Stanley Khanyile.
On Tuesday, Maile wrote to Esidibeng mayor Busi Modisakeng urging that she sends him a written representation on the allegations and corrective measures taken by the municipality to address them.
Khanyile is accused of inflating his salary, flouting supply chain management processes and irregularly appointing officials and licencing examiners, including a director in his office despite the previous record of being dismissed for corruption by Mnquma Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape.
Other allegations include the irregular appointment of service providers, rewriting minutes of council meetings and abuse of power relating to the dismissal of workers for embarking in strike action.
Maile said the allegations were serious and had far-reaching ramifications on both the integrity and governance of the municipality.
“In this regard, Section 106(1)(b) of the Local Government Municipal Systems Act. No. 32 of 2000 (as amended) empowers the MEC of CoGTA to designate a person or persons to investigate if the MEC has a reason to believe that maladministration, fraud, corruption or any other serious malpractice has occurred in a municipality in a province”, Maile said.
Modisakeng and Khanyile could not be reached by the time of publication. Maile said he would not hesitate to intervene in the municipality if the need arose despite the municipality being governed by the ANC.
In his letter to Modisakeng, he said: “In included in your response and or representation, kindly provide adequate reasons as to why I should not discharge my statutory powers in invoking the above-mentioned provisions”.
Political Bureau