Johannesburg residents have been subjected to a Bell Pottinger-type campaign to discredit the City’s executive, council and administration, with the person advancing unsubstantiated claims, through the media, being the former Executive Head in the City Manager’s Office, Mesuli Mlandu. The campaign masquerades as whistleblowing but is in fact designed to attack the corruption-busting capacity of the City.

In some respects, I have been quiet while these allegations, which seek to among other things, destabilise the multi-party government and allow nefarious actors to continue “eating”. I have been quiet so as to not prejudice due process.

Despite the allegations, I can emphatically state that nothing is being hidden. In fact, the City has played open cards, going as far as proactively approaching the State Security Agency (SSA) to investigate the allegations, which subsequently concluded its investigation by delivering a report authored by the director-general of the SSA that clears the City of any wrongdoing.

We are so confident in our case that along with the Speaker of Council, Cllr Vasco Da Gama, and Chief Whip, Cllr Tyrell Meyers, we presented ourselves at the Hillbrow SAPS where charges were laid against us in a coordinated campaign between councillors and rogue officials.

Because of the position he held in the city manager’s office, Mr Mesuli Mlandu had access to all documents, and he was aware of the progress of these through an administrative system that he was totally familiar with.

I had hardly started in office when I was confronted by Mr Floyd Brink (the then Acting City Manager), Mr Mbulelo Ruda (head of the council’s legal division) and Mr Mlandu. Their objective was to remove the Group Forensic and Investigative Services (GFIS) from the process of combatting corruption at senior management level. They insisted that the regulations did not provide for GFIS to act in the way they do.

When I asked how corruption would be tackled in the absence of GFIS, they assured me that they would provide a flow chart showing how senior management corruption would be curbed. To date, this has never been provided.

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This was not the only incident of obstructing corruption-busting. When the foot-dragging from the city manager’s office could no longer be tolerated, my office drew up a report to set up a financial misconduct board to replace the highly compromised and non-functional disciplinary board.

Mr Brink and Mr Mlandu were vociferous in their objections. They preferred to route all allegations against senior managers to a body that had, to that point, not processed a single matter. The only conclusion is that corruption allegations against senior managers were intended to die in an investigative graveyard rather than be subjected to the scrutiny of GFIS, which had a record of success.

When the Al Jama-Ah party made a bizarre allegation that General Shadrack Sibiya, the now former Commissioner of GFIS, had been irregularly converted from one form of employment to another, Floyd Brink seized the opportunity to attack the corruption-busting unit and its head. The allegation was bizarre because the matter had previously been investigated exhaustively by no less a body than the Public Protector and the process was deemed regular and without fault.

The allegation was that the employment of General Sibiya was the same as the illegal conversion to permanent employment of 130 political appointees, who were fixed-term contract employees.

Mr Brink was asked a simple question: was General Sibiya ever appointed on a fixed-term basis? The answer should have been simple. It is a matter of record. General Sibiya was never appointed as a fixed-term contract employee. His case was not and is not the same as the so-called “COJ 130”.

But Mr Brink appointed a firm of attorneys that had been regularly used by Mr Mlandu for various types of legal work in the City. The outcome was a report that went far beyond the simple question of fixed-term versus permanent employee and even ventured into the terrain of espionage. Its findings were totally contrary to the findings of the Public Protector.

On the very day that I assembled the Mayoral Committee to discuss the report, Mr Brink saw fit to withdraw General Sibiya’s delegated authority, effectively collapsing GFIS. The Mayoral Committee and I resolved that an independent investigation be commissioned. The chairperson of the council’s Audit Committee concurred. Webber Wentzel Attorneys looked into the matter. Their report completely contradicted the report commissioned by Brink, which Mr Mlandu relies on.

This same refuted report has also been contradicted by a further report commissioned by the new acting city manager, as well as the State Security Agency. The new acting city manager is finalising this matter and a final report will be tabled at the meeting of the Mayoral Committee in September.

Despite the report commissioned by Brink being discredited more than once, Mr Mlandu insists that this report be held as the sole version of the truth.

It is clear that collapsing GFIS and thus neutralising the fight against corruption among senior managers is maladministration. Setting aside a discredited report and taking tough action against senior managers is not.

Should we not also address the allegation about the 130 employees?

With regard to the claim by Mr Mlandu that the City “used him to fire 130 employees”, I state emphatically that it is untrue. In fact, Mr Mlandu approached my office and after external legal advice was received, the council agreed that the appointments made by the previous administration were unlawful. This has been confirmed by the courts.

Distortion of the true facts does not magically make these distortions the truth.

We are doing what we can with the limited resources that we have; and these limited resources are being directed towards repairing and rebuilding Joburg, rather than lining the pockets of crooked politicians, officials, and external forces. DM