Anyone who has information on corruption in the City of Ekurhuleni should take it to authorities and not be "tjatjarag" and run to the media with false claims.
This was the contention of Ekurhuleni mayor Mzwandile Masina, who tore into the city's suspended chief operations officer (COO) Joe Mojapelo for saying the mayor lied to council about a Special Investigation Unit (SIU) which implicated the latter in a slew of irregularities dating back to 2010.
The SIU report, which was commissioned by former president Jacob Zuma in 2010 and which The Star has seen, exposed blatant looting in which service providers lied about their work experience, produced fake tax clearance certificates and received payments for services not rendered from 2008 until 2011.
It is alleged that the corruption amounted to R40 million, with Mojapelo "illegally" deviating R4m to TS Records' part-owner, Thembinkosi 'TK' Nciza.
Speaking to The Star in February, Mojapelo denied that the SIU had made any adverse findings against him, saying the graft-probing agency found only against the deviations he made, which he said were approved by the city manager, the accounting officer and council, “as required by law”.
“I don’t have the authority and didn’t approve the said deviation. Be that as it may, there is absolutely nothing wrong with the deviation. It was done in terms of Municipal Finances Management Act and supply chain regulations," Mojapelo had said at the time.
However, Masina, who was speaking at a briefing in Germiston on Wednesday, said that following a February council meeting which adopted what councillors felt was an inconclusive SIU report, the corruption-probing agency responded with an evidence bundle in March that found against Mojapelo.
"This matter is sub judice and therefore the substance of the new information cannot be publicly disclosed. Needless to say, it was on the basis of the supplied evidence bundle from the SIU report that the Ekurhuleni Council resolved to suspend the COO, who is currently facing disciplinary action from the city," Masina said.
Following the February council meeting, Ekurhuleni had absolved itself of any wrongdoing regarding the SIU findings.
“Council had a discussion on whether the COO had misled council on the reasons for the unjustified deviation; the opposition parties were of the opinion that he had. However, the report indicates that proper council processes were followed,” the city said February.
Speaking to The Star after the media briefing, Masina said council had not made an about-turn on absolving itself of impropriety, but that the council statement was a defence of council, and not of Mojapelo.
"The city is not investigating itself; we didn't commission the SIU investigation.
"We (Ekurhuleni) have followed due processes. I don't understand why he (Mojapelo) is being tjatjarag and running to media houses (to say I lied to council). He must clear his name at the disciplinary hearing," Masina emphasised.
Meanwhile, the mayor also responded on allegations which surfaced in early July that R1.9 billion was wasted in an irregular tender to supply the city's 119 informal settlements with chemical toilets.
Referring to a 2016 report by the Department of Human Settlements, Masina said the findings said Ekurhuleni had 164 718 households within its informal settlements amounting to roughly 600 000 people.
Masina added that the report recommended that there should be a ratio of one toilet per five households, and that the city would have to deliver 32 943 toilets to meet the recommended ratio.
"In 2016, 37 service providers placed bids for contracts which required that chemical toilets be cleaned twice a week.
"Sixteen were awarded, not 250 as alleged," Masina said.
Masina said the one toilet for five families ratio had been met and exceed, with 39 112 toilets currently on the ground servicing 600 000 people.
"So amaBhungane (media house) can't interview three unhappy people and claim that the whole 600 000 are unhappy," the mayor pointed out.
He asserted that claims of R1.9bn being wasted on the toilets were false, as R828m had been spent on the toilets since 2016,which would rise to an expected R872m by the end of the 2018/19 financial year.