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AIM Takes Mayor Van Niekerk To The Public Protector

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The Abantu Integrity Movement (AIM) has written to the Public Protector requesting her to find that Mayor Gary van Niekerk acted in a manner that is in breach of the Code of Conduct for Councillors.

The party also requests that the Public Protector makes a determination that Van Niekerk should be held personally liable for a legal services bill of more that R500 000 which the mayor caused the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality to incur, allegedly illegally.

AIM Secretary-General Maxhoba Buwa said the party was forced to request the Public Protector’s intervention because it has become evident that the ANC-EFF governing coalition is determined to sabotage an internal council investigation in an obvious attempt to shield their coalition partner Van Niekerk from accountability.

The Public Protector’s office has confirmed that AIM’s complaint is being processed.

Said Buwa: “This is poor governance of the worst kind. It is clear that the governing coalition is prioritising its political interests above the ethical management of ratepayer resources.

“In November last year the council resolved to investigate the Van Niekerk matter and an ad-hoc ethics committee was established.

“Four months later that ethics committee has not moved an inch in its investigation because councillors of the governing coalition are either boycotting its meetings or challenging the legitimacy of its chairperson, Councillor Rano Kayser, who was elected unanimously in the committee’s first meeting. Since then at least seven meetings have collapsed as the governing coalition tries to sabotage the investigation.

“Speaker Eugene Johnson confirmed to the media last week (The Herald 14 March 2024) that an umpteenth attempt to convene a committee meeting failed yet again because some councillors had called in sick while others said they were out of town.

“As things stand now, even if the committee were to meet eventually and conclude its business it would not produce a credible report. With their shenanigans the councillors representing the governing coalition have compromised the committee’s standing as an impartial and non-partisan sub-structure of Council.”

The matter stems from a letter Van Niekerk wrote to the law firm Boqwana Burns Attorneys on 8 June 2022, instructing them to perform certain legal functions purportedly on behalf of the municipality.

At that point Van Niekerk had been removed as a councillor after his seat was declared vacant by the City Manager, and the council had elected an Acting Speaker.

Said Buwa: “That Van Niekerk presented himself to the law firm as Speaker of Council when he was not is, in our view, a clear case of corruption and fraudulent misrepresentation. The council would never have elected an Acting Speaker if it recognised him as the official incumbent in that position at that time.

“The facts of the matter are that Van Niekerk was removed as a councillor on 22 March 2022 after his own political party expelled him.

“The municipality stopped paying his salary and his political support staff was terminated. He was reinstated by the High Court only on 12 September 2022. That is three months after he unlawfully instructed the law firm to perform legal functions purportedly on behalf of Council.

“So he wrote the letter to Boqwana Burns Attorneys under a false pretence knowing full well that he was not Speaker of Council at that time and had no authority to use the municipality’s official letterhead.

“That matter is now under investigation by the Hawks.

“We have requested the Public Protector to make a specific determination on a related aspect. Our point is that whether or not Van Niekerk was the Speaker at the time, he had no business as a politician to bypass the municipality’s supply chain processes plus the City Manager’s office as well as the then Executive Mayor’s office to ‘appoint’ (as he put it in his letter) a service provider of his choice.

“The Municipal Systems Act is quite clear that politicians may not interfere with the work of the administration, and this is a blatant violation of the law.

In his letter to the law firm Van Niekerk wrote: “The Speaker of Council hereby appoints the firm Boqwana Burns Attorneys to take all necessary steps to intervene in the above matter ….”

“No politician, including the Speaker of Council, has authority in law to appoint a service provider on behalf of the municipality, more so one of their choice.

“And if the Public Protector finds that Van Niekerk was in breach of the law then the Boqwana Burns Attorneys invoice should be for his account personally and not the municipality.

“The law is clear about that too. The Public Finance Management Act says politicians or officials who authorise unlawful, fruitless and wasteful expenditure should be held personally liable.

“As AIM we are not going to sit back and watch those parties who are playing politics in council waste ratepayers money.

“The obvious objective of the governing doomsday coalition is to absolve their member Van Niekerk of any wrongdoing, or in the very least let him off with a soft slap on the wrist for what is a serious violation of the law.

“In that scenario the municipality would then be made to pay the Boqwana Burns invoice for legal services procured unlawfully by Van Niekerk.

“On behalf of the people of Nelson Mandela Bay AIM will challenge any political misconduct on the council and we are fortunate to have robust institutions like the Public Protector who are mandated to protect public resources from the crooks.”

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This author is a 'catch-all' for occasional articles and letters written to MyPE. The Author of each article can be found in the signature at the bottom of each individual article.