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DA lays criminal charges on Pikoli Report

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The DA in Nelson Mandela Bay has laid criminal charges with the South African Police Service with respect to the Pikoli Forensic Report which has not been made public yet. The DA will not condone the mismanagement of funds and corruption; these issues must be dealt with.

The failure of the Mayor to make the report public as well as the City Manager’s failure to act decisively on the matter is indicative of the prevailing culture of corruption and mismanagement that runs through the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality.

DA Councillor Leon de Villiers wrote to the Acting Municipal Manager Mr Mbambisa on 3 September 2013 to remind him about his duties in terms of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act and the Municipal Finance Management Act. There has been no positive response from him, so we were forced to report the issue to the SAPS ourselves.

The Pikoli Report, which was concluded in March this year, had been sitting on the Mayor’s desk unattended to. In an attempt to have the report made public the DA made an application through the Promotion of Access to Information Act.

This story broke in August this year and since then there has been no action from government to deal with the findings of the report which expose the endemic corruption and mismanagement of funds in this Municipality. The Pikoli Report details wasteful expenditure of R18 million; R 5.1 million of which was siphoned from the public purse to pay for a concert that never took place.

The report set out to investigate the following issues with regards to the implementation of the IPTS in Nelson Mandela Bay:

  • Verify payments to Laphumilanga Taxi Association by NMBM
  • Assess legislative and policy compliance of tenders awarded to ICT Works and Lumen Technologies
  • Determine when and why payments were made to ESP AFRIKA
  • Payments made to Andrea Wessels for supposed marketing and fundraising for Laphumilanga

The DA will not allow the City Manager or the Mayor to drag their feet any longer in this regard. We have a responsibility to the people of Nelson Mandela Bay to expose all forms of corruption and mismanagement and we will use all avenues available to bring the implicated persons to book.

We are pleased to report that the SAPS have completed their initial enquiry and they are investigating this matter further.

Leon de Villiers

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