The City of Joburg will today hold an extra-ordinary council meeting where a great purge of city officials who are seen as being against the multi-party coalition is expected to take place.
“The Star” understands that councillors and staff working at the city were informed last week of an extra-ordinary council meeting last week, and according to the agenda one Mesuli Mlandu, a state witness in a criminal investigation against the city, is among those expected to be placed on suspension.
Sources have stated that the pioneer of the report involving the termination of 130 employment contracts that was presented to council earlier this year, Mesuli Mlandu, is said to have gone rogue. This was said by executive mayor Mpho Phalatse and speaker of council Vasco Da Gama during a press briefing held at Hillbrow police station two weeks ago. The two office-bearers in the executive and legislature stated in their press briefing that the city has challenges of rogue administrators and that they will be dealt with through the office of the acting city manager.
The multi-party coalition has become infamous for purging workers who were perceived as ANC related in the City of Joburg. Mlandu, a strong supporter of the Zero Tolerance Policy on Corruption, had and sought to further contribute to policy and had acted to address issues of misconduct, fraud and corruption through the office of the speaker. Following multiple failed attempts, he undertook to write letters to the Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, indicating that due processes were not followed in the hiring of the city’s former anti-corruption head Shadrack Sibiya.
Sibiya recently resigned from his post in the city following allegations that he had been improperly hired. He was also accused of acquiring a machine that the city was allegedly using to spy on opposition party leaders. It was later confirmed by the director-general of the State Security Agency, Ambassador Thembisile Majola, that the equipment was a DFE machine use for Crime Intelligence Investigation.
Al Jama-ah councillor Kabelo Gwamanda told “The Star” that he was unhappy with the purging of officials. “As Al Jama-ah we have been advocating for fairness and justice from the genesis of this whole administration. From the moment that they set their focus purely on the purging of officials they have been consistent in this. They are on a relentless vendetta,” Gwamanda said.
Gwamanda said the report on the procurement of the digital forensic equipment that is used for Crime Intelligence Investigation and the recruitment process of the now former group head of GFIS does not feature in the council agenda.
Gwamanda said the DA-led administration was more concerned with firing workers than with service delivery.
“The DA as a party is conditioned as opposition, and therefore even in government they behave as opposition. Service delivery is a concept that is unfortunately beyond their rationale, and that is evident in the state in which the city is in,” Gwamanda said.
“The Star” had contacted the speaker’s office to inquire about the agenda of the extra-ordinary council sitting and was told that a comment would be sent before going to print.