eThekwini mayor guns for whistle blowers

Durban - With the never-ending corruption investigations, arrests and suspension of junior and senior officials in eThekwini Municipality leaking to the media, the Daily News has now reliably learnt that city mayor Mxolisi Kaunda is gunning for the whistle-blowers within his metro.

At Tuesday’s virtual executive committee meeting, Kaunda voiced his anger at those who leaked information to the media before they were even “processed” by the executive committee and council.

This was when City Integrity and Investigations Unit (CIIU) head Mbuso Ngcobo presented his unit’s reports on fraud and corruption.

Kaunda took issue with one of the CIIU reports about Covid-19 spending which was leaked to the media on Sunday and reported in the news on Monday.

“The question is that reports from the CIIU get leaked to the media before they are processed. Have you been able to identify the perpetrators? Who is the weakest link?

We have reports, but before we can deal with them they are already in the media,” said Kaunda.

He wanted to know if Ngcobo had no powers to take legal action against those who leaked information and reports to the media.

The Covid report was deferred. Ngcobo said that he had taken action but it proved difficult to identify the whistle-blowers within the municipality.

“All matters reported in the media are captured.

“I have gone to one of the media houses with the communications head to find out who these sources are but the media does not divulge their sources.”

According to Ngcobo, there are 150 registered cases, with 61 of these still in progress.

He said 21 had been finalised, with the perpetrators found guilty.

“Some 21 matters refer to some entities that had business with the municipality and various sanctions were imposed,” he said.

Kaunda gave Ngcobo direct instructions to compile a report on the 21 cases and present it at Exco. He demanded details on what internal processes were taken against the perpetrators.

Attempts to get clarity on the 21 cases, on the number of entities and employees, were unsuccessful. The city’s head of communications, Mandla Nsele, requested an emailed media query but had not responded by the time of publication.

Ngcobo could not be reached for further details on the 21 cases.

IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi said the mayor’s paranoia about whistle-blowers was shocking.

“How can you worry about people who leak information about the dirt in your municipality instead of sweeping the dirt?

These whistle-blowers are leaking information out of frustration.

Acts of wrongdoing in the municipality are reported but little or nothing at all is done to correct the wrongs. The mayor should stop wasting energy and resources on identifying whistle-blowers, but channel his energy to dealing with thieves and criminals.

Get your house in order and you will have nothing to worry about. You should be protecting them (whistle-blowers).

Failure to do that will lead to more leaked documents and bad publicity in the municipality,” Nkosi said.

DA councillor Yogis Govender said: “In the political climate that we find ourselves in, especially here in KZN, whistle-blower information has become critical in uncovering the layers of rot and corruption.

“Unless they resort to illegal methods, how are they going to find who leaked what and why should the identity matter if there is merit in a complaint?

By going on this witch-hunt they are also potentially endangering the lives of people who are trying to do the right thing and report such matters.”

The Daily News