×

We've got news for you.

Register on SowetanLIVE at no cost to receive newsletters, read exclusive articles & more.
Register now

Johannesburg’s Mesuli Mlandu resigns after report against Shadrack Sibiya concealed

Ernest Mabuza Journalist
Mesuli Mlandu, the executive director in the city manager’s office in Johannesburg, has resigned. File photo.
Mesuli Mlandu, the executive director in the city manager’s office in Johannesburg, has resigned. File photo.
Image: Marianne Schwankhart

Mesuli Mlandu, the executive director in the city manager’s office in Johannesburg, on Friday tendered his resignation with immediate effect.

In a letter addressed to the city council on Friday, Mlandu said his decision to resign follows the concealment at Wednesday's meeting of a report he submitted to the speaker of council Vasco Da Gama in June.

The report contained evidence regarding alleged fraud, corruption and maladministration in the employment of Shadrack Sibiya, the former head of department of group forensic and investigations services (GFIS).

“The concealment of the said report has challenged the ethics and morality of the contribution I made in terminating the employment of 130 employees whose contracts were unlawfully converted to permanent.

“This challenge arises from the fact that their employment was terminated because it was irregular, and yet, when evidence confirms that Mr Sibiya's employment was fraudulent, a report with such evidence is concealed from the municipal council,” Mlandu’s letter read.

In July, Mlandu approached the department of co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) to force Da Gama to act against alleged criminal conduct by mayor Mpho Phalatse.

Mlandu asked Cogta minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma to intervene in Da Gama’s obstruction of the council to consider a report on Phalatse’s alleged subversion of evidence which implicates Sibiya in assuming the functions of the State Security Agency.

Mlandu had also alleged that Sibiya misappropriated R8m and spent it on unvetted counterintelligence equipment.

“This decision also follows from a similar concealment of my reports dated July 22 and July 29, in which I had reported to the speaker of council that I was being subjected to life-threatening and career-damaging unlawful undercover activities by officials who are loyalists of Mr Sibiya, and to threats by Dr Phalatse for prosecuting the irrefutable evidence of fraud, corruption, maladministration and related acts of criminality in Mr Sibiya's employment before the minister of Cogta and minister of police.”

Mlandu said in effect, this concealment has rendered his current and future employment relationship with the municipal council impossible to sustain.

He will be requesting Dlamini-Zuma to “cause such evidence and the matters raised” to be investigated in terms of the Municipal Systems Act.

“Furthermore, I wish to appeal to the sense of justice of every councillor in the City of Johannesburg to cause that this letter is tabled before the municipal council and to support my request for an independent investigation to be conducted by the minister of Cogta,” Mlandu said.

TimesLIVE


Would you like to comment on this article?
Register (it's quick and free) or sign in now.

Speech Bubbles

Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.