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Nelson Mandela Bay deputy mayor opens corruption case against senior municipal officials

FILE PICTURE: July 18, 2014. Mongameli Bobani (UDM Councillor) Pic: Sara Steiniger. ©The Herald.
FILE PICTURE: July 18, 2014. Mongameli Bobani (UDM Councillor) Pic: Sara Steiniger. ©The Herald.

Nelson Mandela Bay deputy mayor Mongameli Bobani opened a case of corruption against acting City Manager Johan Mettler and corporate services acting executive director Vuyo Zitumane at the Humewood Police station on Wednesday morning.

At an impromptu media conference at the station where he had just opened four cases‚ Bobani said the cases could have an impact on mayor Athol Trollip.

He said the cases relate to millions of rand spent on “allegedly dubious contracts entered into by Mettler and Zitumane”. The contracts involve Mohlaleng Media and an ICT equipment company.

The others relate to “an alleged dubious employment contract entered into between the municipality and a company at corporate services”. Bobani said there was a suspicion of conflict of interest.

He also said the way a service provider was hired to implement Mscoa (a municipal accounting system) was dubious.

“This action that I have taken is consistent with the UDM’s commitment of rooting out corruption within the municipality and all organs of state‚” Bobani said. This issue is now in the hands of law enforcement agencies‚ I will be following up on these cases to trace progress.”

Bobani said he will submit a motion to speaker Jonathan Lawack for Mettler and Zitumane to be suspended with immediate effect while the charges are being investigated.

He added the fourth case was in relation to the alleged illegal hacking of municipality servers. He refused to divulge details.

Bobani said: “Someone has to account. The buck stops with someone in terms of administration and it stops with someone when it comes to mayoral committee.

“Millions have been spent‚ I am being targeted here and I am not going to sit and do nothing.”

Bobani said he was chased out of a mayoral caucus meeting on Wednesday morning “because they felt I am not eligible to be part of the mayoral committee“.

 

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