ANC and DA go head-to-head on R31-m investigation
The ANC caucus in Ekurhuleni has accused the DA of "cheap and opportunistic politics'' following accusations made by the latter that the party was ''brushing under the carpet'' the investigation into alleged fraud involving senior officials and possibly politicians.
“This attitude of opportunistic and cheap politics ends up blinding the DA from making informed decisions on issues,” says ANC Chief Whip Robert Mashego.
“It is not surprising that the DA has taken this route of accusing the ANC on this matter.
“They accuse us of everything, anyway. They are the opposition and they will use any opportunity to portray themselves as saints at our expense.”
Mashego says that, while the ANC agrees that the process of implementing the council resolution has taken too long, the ruling party demanded and understood the explanation that was given by the city manager on the matter.
“We called in the city manager to explain this matter to us, because we were also concerned about the progress in terms of the implementation of the council resolution; he explained the process involved and why he had opted for the route of the forensic investigation, and we understood,” he says.
According to Mashego, the ANC subscribes and respects labour laws, hence the decision to allow for all due process to be followed before acting on the matter.
“The matter is now in the hands of the Special Investigation Unit (SIU) and has also been brought to the attention of the MEC for Local Government and the Auditor General, as per the council resolution,” he explains.
Responding to the call by the DA that ”city manager Khaya Ngema must be suspended”, Mashego describes this as an ”ill-informed and premature call to make if you have not even seen the forensic report”.
“After being informed by legal experts that it would be detrimental and/or even result in litigation against council to circulate the report to all councillors before the people who are cited are given a chance to respond to it, we immediately demanded that this process be speeded up so that councillors can get the report as soon as possible and deliberate on it,” Mashego said.
“We know that we have the duty to protect public funds and root out corruption. We shall do that. However, in doing this we do not want to be reckless and play to the gallery with the lives of other people.
“We must make sure that all due process is followed so that the desired outcome is achieved.
”As the ANC government, we subscribe to clean governance and remain confident of our record in dealing with corruption in Ekurhuleni, which speaks for itself.” -@TumeloBoksburg
