By: The Patriotic Alliance
On Monday, in a meeting between the regional leadership of the ANC in the City of Johannesburg and the leaders of the Patriotic Alliance, the ANC informed the PA that the relationship between our two parties had broken down, so much so that the ANC would “rather return to the opposition benches” than allow the PA to “purge” its comrades who it had previously deployed to work at the Joburg Property Company (JPC).
ANC Regional Secretary Dada Morero told the PA that the relationship between the PA and the ANC had ended, calling into question the stability of the Government of Local Unity itself.
The next day (yesterday), the ANC released a statement in which it accused the PA of “failure to understand the separation between the party and the state”.
It is the ANC in the Johannesburg region who have suffered this failure of understanding, however.
The dismal history of ANC-governed state departments and state-owned entities over the past 20 years certainly speaks volumes of the ANC’s governance credentials.
It would be a wonder if anyone today believed that the ANC is suddenly discovering some hitherto unheard-of enthusiasm for clean governance.
Suspensions of JPC executives
During Monday’s meeting, the PA once again spelled out to the ANC why their three “comrades” at JPC had been placed on suspension by the Acting CEO, through the assent of the entity’s board, last month, pending an investigation of their conduct.
All due processes and procedures, with a full executive mandate, were followed.
The suspended comrades’ names are:
• Executive manager Sthembiso Mntungwa;
• Internal audit general manager Sipho Mzobe; and
• Senior manager for supply chain Fitzgerald Ramaboea.
No one in the PA had known at the time of their suspensions that these were ANC comrades. That was certainly not the reason they were suspended and it had not informed the decision.
The actual issue against them was that Mntungwa and Ramaboea had signed off on awards of multimillion-rand Covid-19 cleaning and sanitisation contracts to 80 companies.
These companies were placed on an emergency panel that was established without JPC following any normal tender procedures.
Most of these companies given Covid cleaning contracts had no background, experience or certification in cleaning of any kind, never mind the specialisation required to deal effectively with the pandemic.
These companies were from sectors that included construction, marketing, accommodation and food services, travel services, rental and leasing, landscaping and even air-conditioner supply – but, sadly, not cleaning.
Nearly R50 million was spent on questionable cleaning exercises, including fogging underground parking lots, which we as the PA are concerned was just an excuse to cynically use the pandemic to dispense ratepayer money to politically connected businesspeople.
Large amounts were paid for work at City-owned or rented buildings that may not even have taken place.
Of even greater concern was the evidence that JPC’s contracted head of human resources, Ishmael Matlala, had benefited from cleaning work awarded to one of his companies. A company owned by Matlala’s wife also received Covid-19 cleaning work.
Mzobe was suspended when he went to great lengths to defend these contracts. He even cast aspersions on the motives of the Acting CFO for questioning what had taken place at all.
These new millions were paid long after the R19 million that was originally flagged in the internal audit report in March, when payments had beem made to four companies that similarly had no history or background in cleaning. That matter has already made headlines countrywide.
Those four companies were:
• Triple SL Tech
• KM Mashigo
• Omphile Turnkey
• Mizana Engineering
One of the companies, Triple SL Tech, which was already flagged by the City’s internal auditors during that initial investigation, was once again back on the new panel of 80 companies, despite the board resolving that none of those four companies should receive work again until they were cleared.
Another two of the four companies, Omphile and KM Mashigo, had also applied to be on the new panel but, most embarrassingly of all, were found to not even meet the minimum 70-points threshold. That points threshold had, however, not stopped them from being paid millions in March.
The CEO, Helen Botes, and CFO, Imraan Bhamjee, are still on suspension for those contracts, which they signed off on.
ANC tells PA corruption is not theft
As the PA, we refuse to look the other way when evidence of possible corruption emerges at City-owned entities in a department we were entrusted to manage in this coalition. We cannot allow ANC comrades to steal in entities where we have oversight, and then we later get the blame. Never.
We implored the ANC to allow ethical, good governance processes to play out and for any implicated individuals to be left on fully paid suspension so that they can be afforded as little opportunity as possible to interfere with investigations. If proven innocent, they can be allowed to return to work.
Last month, this very same ANC told us that they were aware of “some corruption” going on at JPC, but they did not consider what happened there theft. Dada Morero told us that “no money was stolen there”, leading us to wonder if the ANC has completely lost sight of what corruption actually is.
Corruption is theft. Of money. Corrupt officials don’t facilitate the theft of sunlight or oxygen. What gets stolen through corruption is money. Public money.
The ANC wanted us to protect people that they are saying didn’t steal but only committed corruption.
So they gave us a corrupt instruction to let their comrades come back to work. They are now trying to remove us because we refused that corrupt instruction.
Most City entities and departments were flagged for questionable spending in June, but only our department and entities took any action against those accused of wrongdoing.
The JPC board in particular has had to endure many attempts at obstruction and being discredited for trying to enforce accountability at JPC. Now the ANC has finally decided to take the gloves off and simply declare war on the PA.
If the internal audit report had not leaked to the media, the ANC would probably have covered it up, as they have covered up corruption before.
This is why PA president Gayton McKenzie told the ANC that they would have to do whatever it was they wanted to do, including trying to remove us from the coalition government, which they are now clearly hoping will be made easier for them if they can win an additional seat or two in next week’s by-elections.
They are trying to fill their voter deficit in the upcoming by-elections, hence they are mentioning the by-elections in their statement.
They have no shame. Our people will not be fooled by this same party for another 25 years.
ANC breaches coalition contract
The ANC would do well to remember that they agreed last year already – along with all other parties in the Government of Local Unity (GLU) – that disputes between any of the coalition partners in the City would need to be managed according to a clearly set out approach.
This included that parties in any dispute would need to go through a disputeresolution process and that these matters would need to be escalated to the Political Management Council (PMC) comprising of members of all the parties in the GLU for unanimous consent.
This did not happen, and therefore the ANC’s unilateral decision to break off its relationship with the PA and imperil the GLU is subject to legal dispute.
Dada Morero is the chairperson of the PMC, and he should know better, but the ANC may well be looking for any excuse to try to remove the PA from the GLU.
Last year, this very same ANC came cap in hand, literally begging for our vote, which installed them back into power. We can use that same vote to remove them again.
We are now approaching the courts for an urgent interdict against the ANC.
