The newly elected Johannesburg Government has announced the appointment of new acting senior managers. This is part of a design to capture the city.
That is according to a press release issued by Mpho Phalatse, former Democratic Alliance mayor of Johannesburg.
‘The City was on a steady path towards renewal, but there is now a clear and present danger of collapse and setback in the fight against corruption’, said Phalatse.
Sinaye Nxumalo has been appointed acting head of the city’s corruption watchdog, the Group Forensic and Investigation Services (GFIS). However, she is also the subject of an investigation by the GFIS.
Phalatse says: ‘This can only be seen as a ploy to shield those who were under fire for their alleged nefarious acts’. It is alleged that Nxumalo failed to submit to the Auditor-General a report on forensic investigations into alleged acts of corruption that implicated senior officials.
The City’s annual report was to be tabled at the last Council meeting. However, the report was jettisoned by the new government in the last Council meeting, and new Mayor Thapelo Amad missed the January deadline.
A report to appoint a permanent City Manager was ready to put before Council but was ‘deliberately shunted aside by the Speaker’.
The City is supposed to adopt an adjustment budget this month, which is badly needed to stabilise the City’s finances. This process is now on hold and the motion is unlikely to be passed.
The work of City Power, Pikitup, Joburg Roads Agency, Joburg Water, Joburg City Parks and Zoo) ‘have been all but grounded by a heavy-handed instruction, to the Boards, in the form of this letter linked here, to cease functional operations’.
According to Phalatse, this can only be seen as calculated to undermine and stop ongoing investigations into the likes of the Joburg Property Company and its CEO, Helen Botes, for an allegedly dodgy R27-million payment, among other things.