Johannesburg - Instead of denying allegations that some of its traffic police internship recruitees were children or romantic partners of top local ANC leaders, the eMalahleni local municipality in Mpumalanga has offered to investigate itself.
The Star can reveal that in a meeting leaders of the municipality held with Nkangala region members of the SA National Civic Association (Sanco) on Monday, mayor Linah Malatjie resolved to launch a probe into the allegations that have gone viral among social media users in eMalahleni.
Sanco member Bongani Hlophe took to social media to lift the lid on what he termed nepotism in the recruitment of 20 internships.
The internship programme started in November 2018 and had a budget of R3million. The interns, who graduated last week and could now be absorbed into the municipality, were also paid stipends.
Hlophe listed six interns that he said Sanco were linked to top ANC leaders in regional and provincial structures.
Sanco charged that four of the interns were children of leaders, one was the wife of an eMalahleni MMC and another was a girlfriend of an MMC.
Daring those he named, Hlophe charged: “If we are wrong, sue us.
“We have nothing to lose nor to gain from this, but to expose corruption and nepotism that have been prevalent in eMalahleni local municipality.”
Hlophe said Malatjie asked for an opportunity to probe the issue at the meeting yesterday.
“We made a submission based on the evidence that we have. The municipality was not in a position to deny anything,” Hlophe said.
“They requested us to give them until Friday to do a thorough investigation.”
Hlophe was confident that the investigation would not come back with evidence refuting Sanco’s allegations.
“these people are politically connected, hence I published the names (on social media). They can’t deny that.
“The people who deserved to go for training did not and those who were politically connected went through,” he added.
Lebo Mofokeng, spokesperson for the municipality,confirmed that Malatjie asked for a chance to investigate the allegations.
“The executive mayor has promised that we’ll do an investigation and give them a prompt response by Friday,” said Mofokeng.
He sought to clarify that the recruitees were not employees of the municipality but former interns. “They’re not employed. But should there be an opportunity in the municipality, they also qualify to apply because they’ve graduated.”
Asked if the municipality knew that any of the 20 were linked to ANC leaders, Mofokeng said: “I cannot confirm this because I don’t know them. The investigation will say whether one is politically connected (or not).”
Hlophe said Sanco, an ANC ally, took the matter public “for everyone to see”.
“We have realised that our politicians are not scared of a scandal, neither are they afraid of a march or protest.
“We gave out this information so that when they go to local elections next year they must convince the public they’ve reformed,” said Hlophe.
“Someone must account for the R3m spent,” he said.