Durban — Suspended eThekwini Municipality deputy city manager Sibusiso Makhanya has accused the City’s leadership of making him a sacrificial lamb.
Makhanya was suspended by city manager Musa Mbhele after the City’s executive committee (Exco) recommended his suspension last week.
He is a deputy city manager responsible for the Trading Service unit, which includes electricity.
He faced a misconduct rap following his alleged failure to provide information to the legal services unit about the legal battle with a service provider who had taken the City to court over non-payment for services rendered.
As a result of the alleged non-compliance by Makhanya, the City incurred costs of R6 million, accrued as interest to the debt of the service provider.
However, Makhanya said he was made a sacrificial lamb because the interest accrual was not a result of any of his actions/conduct as he wasn’t responsible for the payment of service providers.
In his response as to why the City should not suspend him, he argued that Mbhele should not be the one to act against him on this matter as he believed he was highly conflicted.
“The issue at hand relating to the non-payment of (the company) invoices was reported to the city manager by myself before May 2023 upon discovering that there was possible dissent to the council policies and procedures which might result in financial irregularities.
“The matter in question clearly revealed that there was a violation of a known council policy on the delegation of authority in the processing of invoices … whereby the accounts payable department under the Finance Unit is the custodian of the process.
“The invoices produced were incorrect and needed to be aligned and rectified since the service provider had broken them down to a specific threshold which would have been irregular,” read Makhanya’s letter.
He said after alerting Mbhele of the possible irregularities, he (Mbhele) then together with the chief financial officer and chief audit officer agreed with him that there was a valid reason to investigate the matter.
Makhanya said Mbhele went to the extent of referring the matter to the chief audit officer for an audit to be conducted. The outcome of such assessment, dated May 5, 2023, revealed that more than R63 million was found to be irregular.
He argued that the City did not pay the service provider because, according to the finance department, the budget was exhausted – not because of him.
Makhanya took the City to the bargaining council, challenging his suspension since it was approved by the Exco, and not the full council.
He was also challenging it, he said, because the Exco did not consider his submission on why he should not be suspended but relied on the summarised version by Mbhele.
His battle with the City has pitted mayor Cyril Xaba against KwaZulu-Natal Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Thulasizwe Buthelezi, who ordered Xaba to rescind the suspension citing the procedure.
In his letter to the mayor, Buthelezi argued that the Exco had no powers to suspend senior managers at the level of Makhanya, only the full council.
Xaba accused Buthelezi of abusing his powers, telling him that he would not rescind the suspension. He accused the MEC of interfering with the City’s internal matters and warned he would seek court protection should he persist.
In response to Makhanya’s claims of unfair suspension, the mayor denied that the suspension was irregular.
“Therefore it will not be rescinded.”
In response, Buthelezi told the Daily News that he had noted the tone and content of the mayor’s letter.
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Daily News