{"id":20774,"date":"2013-06-28T17:11:33","date_gmt":"2013-06-28T15:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/errant-city-councillors-fined-for-doing-business\/"},"modified":"2013-06-28T17:11:33","modified_gmt":"2013-06-28T15:11:33","slug":"errant-city-councillors-fined-for-doing-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/errant-city-councillors-fined-for-doing-business\/","title":{"rendered":"Errant city councillors fined for doing business"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n \t\t\t \t\t\t \"trading<\/p>\n

Independent Newspapers<\/p>\n

Stanley Xulu<\/p>\n

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\t\t \t\t \t\t\t\t\t \t\t \t\t <\/p>\n

Durban – Three ANC councillors, including chief whip Stanley Xulu and executive committee member Nondumiso Cele, who were caught doing business worth nearly R11 million with the eThekwini Municipality for two consecutive financial years, have been fined by the council\u2019s ethics committee. <\/p>\n

The third guilty councillor is named as Senzangakhona Shange. <\/p>\n

On Thursday, at a full council meeting, opposition parties said the councillors had contravened the Municipal Systems Act and should be fired. <\/p>\n

The act states that no councillor may be a party to or beneficiary under a contract for the provision of goods or services to any municipality. <\/p>\n

But Co-operative Governance MEC Nomusa Dube\u2019s spokesman, Lennox Mabaso, said it was untrue that the councillors were repeat offenders. <\/p>\n

\n

\"trading<\/p>\n

Councillor Nondumiso Joice Cele has been found to be in breach of conduct.<\/p>\n

Independent Newspapers<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe think (to say) that is part of the cheap theatrics and blatant sensationalism,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Ethics committee chairman William Mapena said Xulu had pleaded guilty to landing a tender worth R1.2m as a member of Igagasi Lolwandle Trading. <\/p>\n

He also pleaded guilty to doing business worth R128 700 with the city, through the Igagasi Lolwandle Foundation and for landing another contract worth nearly R370 000, as a member of Inkasa Development Primary Co-operative. <\/p>\n

The committee recommended a written warning and a fine equivalent to six months\u2019 net salary. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Last year Xulu was fined the equivalent of 12 months\u2019 net salary for landing contracts worth R8.5m through Igagasi Lolwandle Trading. <\/p>\n

His fellow executive committee member, Cele, also pleaded guilty to doing business worth about R132 000 with the municipality as a member of Cuphiwe Trading Enterprise. Cele was given a written warning. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Last year she was fined two weeks\u2019 net salary for the same offence. However, the value of the contract then was R200 000 via Cuphiwe Trading Enterprises. <\/p>\n

The committee recommended Shange be given a formal written warning for doing work worth R353 018 as a member of Khetha Thina Trading 16. <\/p>\n

Last year Shange was ordered to pay back four weeks\u2019 net salary for being awarded work worth nearly R270 000 as a member of the same company. <\/p>\n

A fourth councillor, Phumzile Primrose Hlengwa, who also pleaded guilty to doing business worth about R370 000 as a member of Inkasa Development Primary Co-operative, was fined the equivalent of six weeks\u2019 salary. <\/p>\n

During the hearing Hlengwa apologised, a report states. <\/p>\n

Mapena said the Manase report into fraud and corruption in the city implicated nine councillors, including Xulu, Cele, Shange and Hlengwa, for having business dealings with the city. <\/p>\n

He said the councillors named in the Manase report were also implicated in the auditor-general\u2019s report for the financial years 2009\/10, 2010\/11 and 2011\/13. <\/p>\n

The ethics committee broke down the offences according to each financial year and addressed them separately instead of dealing with them as one. <\/p>\n

DA councillor Tex Collins said that Xulu and Cele should be seeking alternative employment. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot condone this and these councillors should be removed from the executive committee,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

DA councillor Dean Macpherson, who is also a member of the ethics committee, said they had brought shame to the council. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe only service delivery taking place is to their bank account with the blessing of the ANC. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe ANC members in the ethics committee tried their damnedest to have the guilty pleas of councillors changed to not guilty,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi echoed Macpherson. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey are tenderpreneurs, not councillors. We are not happy with the fines imposed and we feel that it is best they resign. For them to continue being part of this council is an insult to Durban residents,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The NFP also called on the councillors to go or be given the boot. <\/p>\n

The Mercury was unable to reach all implicated councillors for comment by the time of going to print. <\/p>\n

The Mercury<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Independent Newspapers Stanley Xulu Durban – Three ANC councillors, including chief whip Stanley Xulu and executive committee member Nondumiso Cele, who were caught doing business worth nearly R11 million with the eThekwini Municipality for two consecutive financial years, have been fined by the council\u2019s ethics committee. The third guilty councillor is named as Senzangakhona Shange. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-20774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20774\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}