{"id":50658,"date":"2023-06-29T21:11:23","date_gmt":"2023-06-29T21:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/gfis-investigation-if-the-opposition-has-nothing-to-hide-why-the-panic-joburg-speaker"},"modified":"2023-06-29T22:27:44","modified_gmt":"2023-06-29T22:27:44","slug":"gfis-investigation-if-the-opposition-has-nothing-to-hide-why-the-panic-joburg-speaker","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/gfis-investigation-if-the-opposition-has-nothing-to-hide-why-the-panic-joburg-speaker","title":{"rendered":"GFIS investigation: If the opposition has ‘nothing to hide’, why the panic? – Joburg speaker"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Johannesburg’s speaker, Colleen Makhubele, said she was being attacked for exercising her legal powers to advise council and to act on its behalf.<\/p>\n

She authorised a probe into the conduct of the group forensics and investigation service (GFIS) as well as ex-City leaders who are alleged to have misused the corruption-busting entity.<\/p>\n

An independent senior counsel will do the preliminary investigation.<\/p>\n

The Office of the speaker will announce the legal firm on Friday.<\/p>\n

The findings of the report are to be delivered to the council on 21 July at the next ordinary sitting.<\/p>\n

Last week, GFIS’s powers were removed in a behind-closed-doors report, given by the mayor, Kabelo Gwamanda, at the 13th Ordinary Sitting of Council.<\/p>\n

According to the report, the “investigations conducted by GFIS were neither compliant with the local government disciplinary regulations for senior managers, nor compliant with the approved GFIS delegations of authority”.<\/p>\n

The opposition, fingered in the report for allegedly using GFIS as a personal vendetta agency, registered its discontent.<\/p>\n

The DA’s Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku accused Makhubele of overreaching her mandate.<\/p>\n

Kayser-Echeozonjoku was concerned that the names of those implicated – former speaker Vasco Da Gama, former mayor Mpho Phalatse and councillor Leah Knott – were mentioned in a statement on the matter, without being warned.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the Speaker held a briefing, saying she and the City manager, Floyd Brink, were being attacked for exercising their legal powers.<\/p>\n

Makhubele said:<\/p>\n

Makhubele said the previous DA-led administration had secretly spent R20 million on digital forensic equipment, which was used to spy on councillors.<\/p>\n

The speaker said she had been a victim of it – and recently found out she was the subject of a 200-page “illegal investigation”, which she said was concealed by the DA-led government.<\/p>\n

She said GFIS was open to abuse because it was created without a clear mandate on its powers, how it could be used, and by whom.<\/p>\n

Makhubele said the investigation would be the first step to fixing this issue – and the council would take guidance on how the entity would operate in future.<\/p>\n

She asked: “Why the panic [on the investigation] on their part, if there was nothing to hide?”<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Johannesburg’s speaker, Colleen Makhubele, said she was being attacked for exercising her legal powers to advise council and to act on its behalf. She authorised a probe into the conduct of the group forensics and investigation service (GFIS) as well as ex-City leaders who are alleged to have misused the corruption-busting entity. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":50657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[274,315,1485,3302,309,310,2703,288,275],"class_list":["post-50658","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-city-of-joburg","tag-colleen-makhubele","tag-gauteng","tag-johannesburg","tag-local-government","tag-politics","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nGFIS investigation: If the opposition has 'nothing to hide', why the panic? - Joburg speaker - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Johannesburg's speaker, Colleen Makhubele, said she was being attacked for exercising her legal powers to advise council ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/gfis-investigation-if-the-opposition-has-nothing-to-hide-why-the-panic-joburg-speaker\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"GFIS investigation: If the opposition has 'nothing to hide', why the panic? 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