Opportunity for floundering community wasted.
Everyone is waiting to see how Buffalo City metropolitan municipality in the Eastern Cape is going to deal with officials involved in the derailed swimming pool construction project that cost the municipality a whopping R57 million.
The problem started in 2017 when R22 million was allocated to construct phase one of the Mdantsane NU2 Olympic-size pool to be used for swimming lessons and diving facilities.
The pool was built many years ago by the apartheid government, but shut down in the ’80s as it was dilapidated due to lack of maintenance.
The government allocated money for its reconstruction, but the project was progressing slowly.
So, in 2024, the Buffalo City public accounts committee investigated and spotted irregularities.
Further investigation was commissioned and conducted by the auditing firm EY, formerly Ernst & Young, which revealed the delay was caused by the service provider’s shoddy work, which already cost taxpayers R57 million.
The Citizen has been informed the municipality’s disciplinary board completed its probe and tabled the report on January 29, but it is not clear when the disciplinary process will begin.
The report, seen by The Citizen, indicated there were about 23 officials implicated in the scandal.
“The council must provide a monthly progress report to the disciplinary board on the progress of the disciplinary processes against the identified employees/officials,” the report read.
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Calls for accountability and action
Anathi Majeke, DA chief whip in the municipality, said the party was expecting authorities to deal harshly with the implicated.
“Regarding recoverability, the municipal manager should institute those processes.
So far, we have not been apprised of this.
“As per the Municipal Finance Management Act, Section 32, the manager is obliged to recover any misused funds by officials and further institute disciplinary processes.
“In terms of implicated service providers, a case must be opened with the police for any fraudulent activities and any wrongdoing and the municipal manager has failed to do so.
Further to this, any service provider who is found to be guilty must be blacklisted.”
Majeke said disciplinary processes have not been formally instituted.
“It first starts with an investigation, which was done by EY, and then the report was sent through to the disciplinary board as per council resolution, and has further recommended that there is prima facie evidence in a case being answered for by implicated officials.
“The next step is the officials being suspended and an official disciplinary case being heard by an independent service provider appointed by the council.”
Majeke further said the worrying thing was the swimming pool has not been completed yet.
An Olympic-sized pool for the community of Mdantsane has been another development of money that has been wasted with nothing to show for it, she said.
“In a community riddled by drugs, poverty and unemployment, this is a wasted opportunity.”
Themba Godi, leader of the African People’s Convention and former parliamentary standing committee on public accounts chair said there was an urgent need to identify the culprit and deal with them accordingly.
He said it was shocking, but it has come to be expected from the incompetence and the corruption of ANC councils, where money was given to friends via dubious tenders.
“It should not be difficult to find the culprits… the paper trail should be very easy.”
Municipal spokesperson Bongani Fuzile refused to comment, claiming the questions were based on a confidential document.
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