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SACP in KZN calls for mayor Zandile Gumede to be hauled before ANC's integrity commission

eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede says she was not involved in the administrative process in the Durban Solid Waste contract.
eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede says she was not involved in the administrative process in the Durban Solid Waste contract.
Image: Supplied

The South African Communist Party (SACP) in KwaZulu-Natal has called for embattled eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede to be subjected to the ANC's integrity commission to answer to allegations which have been levelled against her.

SACP provincial secretary Themba Mthembu told a media briefing in Durban on Tuesday the party wanted the ANC to take the matter against Gumede to its integrity commission so the allegations could be tested.

"We want to see the ANC taking the matter to the integrity commission. That's why the ANC has introduced the integrity commission. It's a pity now that there are leaders of the ANC who are attacking the integrity commission. It's a very sad thing to happen," said Mthembu.

Gumede last month appeared in the Durban specialised commercial crimes court on charges including fraud and corruption relating to the R208m solid waste tender in the city.

But Gumede, who is also eThekwini ANC regional chair, has denied being involved in corruption and has said she was confident her name would be cleared. She told a weekend Durban newspaper that she was in discussion with the ANC and the results of those discussion would be released at the right time.

"The ANC believes in starting by investigating and making findings before suspending a person. It does not just tell a person to go away," Gumede is reported to have told the weekend newspaper.

Gumede appeared in court alongside eThekwini councillor Mondli Mthembu, who is also the chairperson of the infrastructure committee, and they are both out on R50,000 bail.

Their arrest followed that of nine senior eThekwini municipality officials and service providers earlier in connection with the same Durban Solid Waste tender.

Mthembu said the ANC should subject the issue of the eThekwini mayor to the integrity commission so that it can make findings on the allegations against her.

Although the SACP wants Gumede to be hauled before the integrity commission, Mthembu said they have doubts about its effectiveness.

"We have reservations on the effectiveness of the integrity commission if the ANC itself is allowed to degenerate. Once an organisation starts to attack its own integrity commission, it's an organisation that is now subjected to moral decay," he said.

MK Military Veterans' Association president and former military veterans deputy minister Kebby Maphatsoe has become the latest ANC leader to call for an overhaul of the integrity commission amid allegations that it was being used to fight factional battles within the ruling party.

But the integrity commission has rejected the claims, arguing its work was above board.

Gumede’s spokesman Mthunzi Gumede said: "We note all organisations giving their opinion in favour or against the mayor but service delivery has not been hampered in the city by her bail conditions."

ANC regional spokesman Nkosenhle Madlala was not immediately available for comment.


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