ActionSA president Herman Mashaba has filed an application asking the Pretoria high court to review and set aside findings made against him by the public protector.

Mashaba said the case was based on an “anonymous” complaint laid “by the ANC alleging maladministration with respect to irregular appointments, irregular salary increases, financial mismanagement and conflicts of interest under the multiparty coalition government which I led”.

Mashaba is claiming that public protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane “materially misdirected herself in addressing the merits of the scurrilous complaint”. She released the report last December.

He claimed that the findings she made against him were inaccurate and harmful to “my personal and professional reputation”.

The public protector report on the complaint made scathing findings against the City of Johannesburg during the time that Mashaba was mayor. She found there had been non-compliance with supply chain management regulations and recruitment processes.

She also found that the city had irregularly funded non-governmental organisation Field Band Foundation (FBF), which deals with the scourge of drugs around Joburg but was reported to be Mashaba’s own project.

She found him guilty of a conflict of interest in soliciting free services from an adviser who is his wife’s business partner.

Mashaba resigned in protest from the DA and as mayor in October 2019 when the party elected former leader Helen Zille as federal council chairperson. He then went on to establish his own party, ActionSA.

Mashaba denied Mkhwebane’s findings, and is now taking the matter to court. He said the fact that he resigned from all directorships when he was appointed mayor, and had declared all his financial interests to the city’s integrity commissioner meant that there was no conflict in his dealings.

He admitted to having been chair of FBF for many years, but “I resigned before I was appointed mayor”. He said all funding of the organisation had been above board and merited.

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