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INCENSED: Mayor Lindile Nhaca says service delivery won't be disrupted by untested allegations

By Musa Mnyandu

Incensed KwaDukuza Mayor Lindile

Nhaca remains adamant that unverified allegations by a faceless social media user will not be used to halt service delivery. This follows a bitter public feud between Nhaca and ActionSA leader Nel Sewraj, over the recent awarding of contracts for rebuilding of infrastructure damaged by floods. The tenders, awarded to over 20 panel of contractors on the municipality's database, are worth hundreds of millions of Rands, which money comes from the R1.2 billion allocated to KDM by National Treasury through the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC).

ActionSA has since issued a statement, in which it quotes an anonymous letter that implicates some of the contractors in allegations of large scale malfeasance.

ActionSA KwaDukuza Caucus Leader Nel Sewraj claims that, according to information contained in the anonymous letter, the owner of one of the companies on the panel owns (or has an interest in) more than one company on the panel. Sewraj goes on to accuse Mayor Nhaca of ignoring warnings about corrupt activities surrounding the contracts, after she recently officially handed over the contracts.

“ActionSA undertook an investigation of the panel of 25 contractors and discovered that registration numbers and dates for some companies could not be traced while others were deregistered or in the process of being deregistered.

“KwaDukuza Mayor, Cllr Lindi Nhaca went ahead with the hand-over ceremony for this panel of contractors on the 25th of April. Allocation of work to these accused contractors is already underway, and each company stands to benefit from awards amounting to between R10 million and R20 million.

“Yet, to date there has been no response from the Municipal Manager about investigations into the companies implicated, though these investigations were specifically requested by ActionSA at a Special Council meeting on 14 April 2023, and subsequently in writing on 02 May 2023,” ActionSA stated.

Mayor Nhaca remains unperturbed. She has since described as “nonsensical” the notion that service delivery could be halted on the basis of an ActionSA recommendation. She expressed confidence that all due processes were followed.

“Should this not be the case, reasonable steps would be pronounced by Council (at) the right time.

“I cannot reach a conclusion whether or not, a contractor is subjected to an investigation neither will I halt any development based on hearsay. If these allegations are indeed true, consequence management must follow and should this be the case for all issues that the Council feels warranted to pay attention to, the Council will need to express itself as and when the right time comes, Nhaca said.

Cheap politics

ActionSA says it has since written to the Municipal Manager, requesting him to direct the Internal Audit Committee (IAC) to investigate allegations of manipulation by some contractors on the panel; however at this stage no such investigation has been instituted by the municipality.

“ActionSA demands the blacklisting of any individuals, or family members of such individuals and companies found guilty of abusing public procurement systems for personal gain,” the party says.

Nhaca, still seething with rage at ActionSA's decision to put out these matters on public platforms, had some strong words to counter with:

“There is no formal process that has been approved by Council in this regard. It would be foolish of me or any Mayor to be swayed by external narratives that (are based on controversial) evidence of faceless social media users. What (Cllr) Sewraj fails to appreciate is that service delivery would not be disrupted by cheap politics and I view these allegations as political interference,” Nhaca retorted.