The ANC has once again by its actions clearly revealed to the people of KZN that it will never clean up its act or rid itself of corruption. It’s all talk and no action.

This after the DA has seen a 52-page letter of dismissal sent to Thembinkosi Ngcobo by the South African Local Government Bargaining Council wherein it alleged that current ANC MPL Amanda Bani who at the time was an Integrated Development Plan Manager (IDP) in eThekwini was involved with suspicious authorization of payments.

According to the letter, Perstha, a contractor, was allegedly paid R140 000 by the municipality without having rendered any services.

Perstha was paid by an employee in the Parks, Recreation and Culture (PRC) Unit who alleges she was advised by Bani to proceed with payment. Perstha was given a contract to provide a marquee, lounge and stage for a beach festival which took place on 5 September 2015. The contractor agreed to charge the municipality R40 000.

In October 2015, the contractor was allegedly told by the employee at the PRC unit to submit an invoice of R140 000 so that they would be able to pay the company. According to the letter, Bani fraudulently approved the payment of R140 000 to be made to Perstha knowing very well that Perstha did not render any services to the beach festival.

Following that, Perstha was contacted by the employee to give them banking details of where they should pay the money after they had received it from the municipality. Perstha was instructed to keep R10 000 and send R130 000 to the bank account provided.

Following a forensic investigation, the City Integration and Investigation Unit (CIIU) opened criminal cases against the employee and Bani in 2018. The employee then resigned from the municipality.

At the time when the forensic report was being drafted, Bani was an employee and it was accordingly recommended that disciplinary action be instituted against her for violating Schedule 2, Section 2 (b) of the Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000 and the violation of Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003. Given that she is no longer an employee of the municipality, no such disciplinary action can be instituted.

Instead, Bani was promoted to the Legislature in 2019 and now is Chairperson of the Sport and Recreation portfolio committee. If there is indeed substance to these allegations, why would the ANC promote Bani? Surely this cannot be a reward for being competent! What happened to accountability? What happened to consequence management? What happened to the ANC’s much-vaunted “step aside” policy?

There are insiders and outsiders when it comes to this policy – Ace Magashule being an outsider, while the likes of Zandile Gumede and Bani are insiders.

If the Premier and the ANC in KZN are serious about cleaning up corruption, then the time for double talk is over.

 

Issued by The DA