Durban – The Economic Freedom Fighters have kept to their promise to shut down the Durban City Hall in an anti-corruption protest.
On Thursday morning EFF members marched to the Durban City Hall holding banners saying the EFF was here to fix the country.
Earlier this week, the EFF in Kwazulu-Natal said it planned to shut down the Durban City Hall after the deputy head of the supply chain management unit, Sandile Ngcobo, was appointed to another position despite facing charges of alleged tender fraud.
Ngcobo was arrested and charged in May over a tender granted to Durban Solid Waste.
The Sunday Tribune reported that Ngcobo and others were arrested during the Hawks’ national clean-audit task team’s investigation into the R208 million tender, in which service providers were allegedly paid huge amounts of money even though they did not render any services.
In a statement, the EFF said: “While it is a norm for the ruling party to bring back all the ’rotten potatoes’ into positions of power, we would like to issue a stern warning (that) this time around our words will actually become actions.”
The EFF further said if the decision was not revoked by October 1, they would shut down the Durban City Hall.
They asked the decision to be revoked pending the outcome of the investigation.
Ngcobo, who was placed on special leave in November, returned to work in December after approaching the Labour Court.
Queen Mbatha, vice-chairperson of the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union, said on behalf of Ngcobo that the union had challenged the city’s decision at the bargaining council and lodged a dispute at the Labour Court, adding that Ngcobo’s bail conditions did not prevent him from carrying out his duties.
IOL