{"id":5394,"date":"2021-02-28T20:48:05","date_gmt":"2021-02-28T20:48:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?p=5394"},"modified":"2021-02-28T17:47:22","modified_gmt":"2021-02-28T17:47:22","slug":"public-protector-urged-to-investigate-joburg-mayor-after-controversial-appointment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/public-protector-urged-to-investigate-joburg-mayor-after-controversial-appointment","title":{"rendered":"Public Protector urged to investigate Joburg mayor after controversial appointment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – South-Africa<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Johannesburg – Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has been urged to probe Joburg mayor Geoff Makhubo following his adviser\u2019s appointment as acting chief executive of the Joburg Property Company (JPC).<\/p>\n

Mkhwebane\u2019s probe comes after businessman and politician Kenny Kunene\u2019s complaint about Ruby Mathang\u2019s appointment to oversee one of the city\u2019s biggest budgets.<\/p>\n

Kunene contends that this represents a dangerous conflict of interest and gives Makhubo direct control of a major City-owned entity that oversees a multibillion-rand budget in the city.<\/p>\n

Mkhwebane\u2019s spokesperson Oupa Segalwe said the office had received the complaint and they would be assessing it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe complainant alleges corruption and conflict of interest regarding the appointment of the special adviser to the executive mayor. The complaint will be assessed for jurisdiction and merit before a decision on the way forward can be made,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In the complaint, which the publication has seen, Kunene writes that the JPC\u2019s former board, which was recently dissolved, had previously \u201crefused an instruction from the mayor, disguised as repeated recommendations from his mayoral committee, that Mr Mathang should be instated as the acting CEO\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the former board\u2019s chosen appointees to this role were rejected by the mayoral committee (Maycom), despite the mayoral committee, and the mayor as the shareholder of record, not having the power to overturn board decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kunene told the public protector that the city\u2019s own policies only permit Maycom to \u201cnote\u201d acting appointments and not approve them.<\/p>\n

He said this was the reason the former board, \u201cchaired by independent property expert Caswell Rampheri, was dissolved by the shareholder\u201d.<\/p>\n

He claims that former chairperson Moeketsi Rabodila was reinstalled as the new board chair, \u201cdespite his involvement in previous irregularities at JPC, including a decision to irregularly convert the fixed-term contract of the chief financial officer to permanent\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added that the subsequent appointment of Mathang by the new board \u201cis irregular in the extreme\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is a political appointee in the mayor\u2019s office. The ANC itself complained about the deployment of Christo Marais in an acting capacity due to him working in the mayor\u2019s office during Herman Mashaba\u2019s term, and yet this is what they are now doing, on a far larger scale and to an entity with a far greater budget,\u201d said Kunene.<\/p>\n

Mashaba labelled the appointment as \u201ccadre deployment on steroids\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added that he had already challenged Mathang to investigate a land deal that saw Joburg City giving the Guptas a title deed to a land where a Gautrain station was built on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was a personal friend, someone who was in the council for many years. I have requested Mr Mathang to investigate the land that was given to the Guptas for the construction of the Sandton City Gautrain station. Those guys never paid a single cent for that land, and we can\u2019t get it back,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said while he was mayor, he made appointments based on expertise and nothing else.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at the appointments I made in the City, I was not working based on friendship but on their knowledge, not who they knew. I want Mr Mathang to know that when we take over after the elections, he is going to be out,\u201d said Mashaba.<\/p>\n

Kunene claimed that Mathang had never worked as an official in the City and \u201cwas previously the mayoral committee member (MMC) for economic development, under which JPC falls. This once again points to a blurring of the lines between politicians and officials\u201c.<\/p>\n

Kunene said he complained: \u201cbecause we can\u2019t allow what happened in 2016 to repeat itself whereby Geoff Makhubo from 2015 masterminded the city funding the ANC election campaign through companies that were doing business with the city through Regiments Capital and (technology company) EOH.<\/p>\n

\u201cMakhubo admitted at the state capture commission that he was paid by Regiments while he was the finance MMC and he sat in a Maycom meeting that decided on the fate of a tailor-made deal for Regiments that was to be executed by JPC. He\u2019s always had business interests at JPC. The EOH CEO and also the head of forensics at ENSAfrica also highlighted the corrupt relationship between Regiments, EOH and Makhubo. That was also presented to Zondo,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kunene asked why Makhubo had not been suspended or asked to take leave despite these \u201cdamning allegations\u201d.<\/p>\n

Attempts to get comments from Makhubo and Mathang were unsuccessful.<\/p>\n

[email protected]<\/p>\n

The Sunday Independent<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Johannesburg – Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has been urged to probe Joburg mayor Geoff Makhubo following his adviser\u2019s appointment as acting chief executive of the Joburg Property Company (JPC). Mkhwebane\u2019s probe comes after businessman and politician Kenny Kunene\u2019s complaint about Ruby Mathang\u2019s appointment to oversee one of the city\u2019s biggest budgets. Kunene […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":5393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,12],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-5394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nPublic Protector urged to investigate Joburg mayor after controversial appointment - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Johannesburg - Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane has been urged to probe Joburg mayor Geoff Makhubo following his advi ...\" \/>\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\/public-protector-urged-to-investigate-joburg-mayor-after-controversial-appointment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Public Protector urged to investigate Joburg mayor after controversial appointment\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Johannesburg - 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