Durban - The eThekwini Municipality’s new acting head of audit, risk and assurance services is allegedly not suitably qualified for the position.
Well-placed sources say Ronald Machumi, 47, was only appointed because he is “pals” with city manager Sipho Nzuza, who adjusted the requirements so that his friend could land the job - an allegation that Nzuza denies.
In his position, which commenced on August 1, Machumi reports to Nzuza.
Nzuza said the allegations that he had a hand in Machumi’s appointment were made by people who were wary of Machumi’s impressive record as an auditor because they were involved in corrupt activities.
However, a city source who asked not to be named claimed that more suitable candidates for the position were overlooked.
The source claimed that the previous head of the city’s audit unit that watched over the entity’s annual budget of more than R45 billion held a Master's in Business Administration (MBA) in accounting and auditing and was well recognised in auditing circles.
Machumi holds a degree in accounting and auditing.
Nzuza confirmed working with Machumi in Cape Town previously but said he had told the municipality of this when the shortlisting for the position was announced. He said he did not ask Machumi to apply for the position.
“So there’s no conflict of interest. I also wasn’t part of the interview panel.”
eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Mandla Nsele said: “He (Machumi) has 23 years' post-articles auditing experience. He started working in auditing in 1991 as an audit senior with Deloitte and Touche.”
However, Murray Dicks, reputation and risk leader at Deloitte and Touche, said it was uncommon for someone to be an audit senior at the age of 20.
“Typically, our auditors would still have been in full-time studies until at least age 22 and you would then have to add another three years to be in the final year of auditing articles when you are an audit senior. Unfortunately, we no longer have personnel records going back to 1991 as these have been destroyed in terms of our retention and destruction policies,” said Dicks.
Nsele said Machumi had also been a group internal audit manager for Zimnat Insurance Company in 1996, group internal auditor in 1999 for Rennies Travel and Old Mutual SA’s risk manager in 2000.
“In 2004, he became a senior manager risk and internal auditor for accounting firm Ngubane and Co. In 2008 he worked as a divisional internal control champion for Transnet.
"Based on his experience, Mr Machumi was the most suitable candidate,” said Nsele.