Dear Advocate Madonsela One of the things I have learned is that it is difficult to write an opening sentence to someone of your standing in the community. It took me ten attempts, and I am still not sure if I am happy with what I settled for. In addition to the stress of finding appropriate words for each sentence. I have been burdened by the thought of a reaction this letter could elicit; not only from ordinary South Africans and some political parties but the ever hawkish media when one says anything negative about the Public Protector. I still have scars of a bias and unfair media in the recent past and I know that this letter could awaken their viciousness. Anyway, I am going ahead. Sometime last year, you challenged anybody who believes that you are biased in doing your job. At that time, I had hoped that I would receive responses not only to the original complaint but also to letters that followed. Unfortunately, I had a false hope. I believe that you are bias in favour of the Democratic Alliance, and here is why I believe so – In December 2011 I submitted, to your office in George, a complaint against several individuals serving as councillors and administrators at the Bitou Local Municipality. The complaint was acknowledged and referenced as 7/2-52065/11/WC-GRG. My letter of complaint is 8 pages long, so, I won’t repeat details of the allegations made in the letter. Each allegation was substantiated with relevant documents attached. In summary, my complaint was that – a) The DA/COPE coalition in Bitou Local Municipality violated the Municipal Finance Management Act where it specifically forbids Councillors to award Tenders to any service provider in that several Tenders, ALL of which were in violation of the Procurement Policy, were awarded by DA/COPE councillors. The Tenders amounted to millions of rand. b) The former Speaker of the Council initiated an illegal court case against ANC councillors. In any event, the ANC councillors did not raise the unlawfulness of the action but dealt with the merits of the matter. Hoping to win the case, the DA circulated a letter during the case and said whoever lost the case would pay from own pocket. The DA lost the case, and besides the undertaking made to the community of Bitou that whoever lost would pay from own pocket, the referral was unlawful and the then Speaker was supposed to pay from own pocket. But the DA change tune and together with COPE in the council, voted to use public funds to pay costs on behalf of former Speaker. c) The appointment of then Acting Municipal Manager, Mr. MP Du Plessis, by the Mayor, allegedly in collaboration with Premier, Helen Zille, was illegal. The law clearly states that only the council appoints a Municipal Manager and the function cannot delegated. In the case of Bitou, there was not even an attempt to delegate the function. Given that the High Court ruled on a similar matter when Zille challenged the decision by former mayor of the City of Cape Town, Nomaindia Mfeketo for extending the contract of Dr Wallace Mgoqi, former City Manager, I submitted that the DA was well aware of the law in this regard but went ahead to do what was wrong. The salary paid to Du Plessis is unlawful expenditure and all decisions taken by him could be deemed invalid. In February 2012, I supplemented my complaint with more allegations. These were – d) That the DA Speaker’s live-in American girlfriend was accorded the status of a “previously disadvantaged individual” by Du Plessis. She was then immediately awarded an contract that was never advertised, or quotations asked from other service providers. Payments for that illegal contract were made into the account of the Speaker, which is another violation of the law. e) The DA awarded a R4,5m contract to an IT company, without going through a Public Tender process, and I attached proof from internal DA correspondence confirming that the company was funding the DA election campaigns. At the time of supplementing my complaint, I informed that the George office would not handle the matter as the investigator at that office is related to the Mayor of Bitou. After months of not hearing anything from anyone, I contacted your office and was told that the matter was referred to the Cape Town Office. Some months later, and on my enquiry, I received a copy of the response from the municipality. I was told that that was your draft response to my complaint. What was also interesting with the document was that all their answers were that they did “nothing wrong”. Not a single response referred to authority from any Act of Parliament. In my conversation with your Shireen Langeveldt, I was told inter alia that this is a difficult case and that everything comes down to their word against my word. This was despite each allegation having documentary proof. I told Langeveldt that I had previously avoided mentioning that the DA gloated that my complaint would never be dealt with by your office because I didn’t want to create an impression that I wanted to exert undue pressure on your office. I then sent a letter objecting to how you were handling the matter. That was in August 2012 and to date, no response was ever received. All my subsequent letters, and at least one enquiry from Mary-Anne Mngomezulu, have been ignored. My questions to you are – Since when, do you accept responses from the individuals accused of wrong doing as your findings? Was that the case with Pansy Tlhakula, or Bheki Cele, or Tina Joemat-Petersen, or Hlaudi Motsoeneng and others? Is the DA untouchable and should the public not report any alleged wrongdoing by members of that party? Should I, and members of the ANC in Bitou, still have faith in you and your office in light of how you handled this matter? PS: ANC Bitou Sub-region wanted to submit own complaint on the same matter but agreed to let you investigate based on my complaint. Yours in the quest for fairness Kenny Leluma
Posted on: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 08:40:40 +0000
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