Africa-Press – South-Africa. The DA has opened a case against City of Johannesburg speaker Colleen Makhubele for allegedly using City vehicles as well as food parcels from the Joburg Market to give to residents aligned to her party, COPE.
Speaking at the Norwoord police station on Tuesday, Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku, the DA’s caucus leader in the Johannesburg council, said the party had gathered evidence against Makhubele.
According to Kayser-Echeozonjoku, Makhubele allegedly illegally disbursed food packages from the Joburg Market, abused City vehicles for personal gain and provided “city refreshments for personal and COPE-aligned gatherings”.
She said the DA had submitted pictures to the police in Norwood of Makhubele’s alleged abuse of state resources.
Kayser-Echeozonjoku added the party had chosen this particular police station because of its reputation of properly investigating cases.
Last month, the council adopted a resolution to strip the powers of the Group Forensic and Investigation Services (GFIS) for alleged “improper and unlawful conduct” in some of its investigations.
On Monday, Makhubele announced advocate Sesi Baloyi SC had been appointed by the City to investigate the allegations.
On Tuesday, Kayser-Echeozonjoku said the decision to suspend the GFIS was “unlawful”, adding it had achieved 28 successful convictions for property hijacking, with 41 buildings handed back to their “rightful owners”.
“The budget and business plan for GFIS was approved by council on 14 June 2023, and the unlawful report to strip GFIS of its powers was approved by the GLU [government of local unity] in council on 21 June 2023.”
She asked:
The GLU is the common name used for Johannesburg’s coalition government, which includes the ANC, EFF, and Patriotic Alliance, among other organisations.
“GFIS was responsible for pre-employment vetting and screening.
“All those are now questionable and subject to review because of the council resolution,” Kayser-Echeozonjoku said.
She added senior managers of city entities as well as executive appointments flagged by the GFIS could now be taken on review.
Kayser-Echeozonjoku said a fleet contract that National Treasury said should stop immediately had “ballooned” to R2 billion from R600 million and had been extended for a sixth year.
She added this alleged corrupt contract would not be probed when the GFIS was disbanded, saying the GLU would ensure “only officials who investigate officials aligned to them are suspended and fired”.
“The PA-ANC-EFF, enabled by the speaker, want to render the City powerless, without any capacity to investigate corruption that [happened] under their watch,” Kayser-Echeozonjoku said.
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