James Selfe James Selfe
Cape Town - While an investigation into alleged malpractices and irregular appointments at George Municipality has been launched, the DA could end up with egg on its face.
A DA councillor has requested party federal council chairperson and MP James Selfe to intervene in his appointment to an office where his job status would change to that of an official running the administration of George municipality.
The appointment of councillor Leon van Wyk would have by-passed a process to identify a need for an investment promotions office, in addition to an already existing economic development one.
Selfe, who heads the DA’s governance unit, raised the issue of Van Wyk’s appointment to head an investment promotion office with the mayor, saying it appeared the councillor had a “legitimate expectation” that he would be appointed to the position in the administration of the municipality.
The appointment was apparently based on an agreement that Van Wyk would not take up any position in the mayoral committee.
Frustrated at the slow pace of the process and the twists and turns, Van Wyk turned to the DA for intervention. Selfe wrote to Mayor Melvin Naik seeking clarification.
Van Wyk told Selfe that Naik was of the view that municipal manager Trevor Botha was taking an “unduly conservative line” and he would need to “exercise political will”.
Selfe said this week he had been informed that prior to the 2016 municipal elections, Van Wyk had presented a case for an office to encourage small business development in the organogram of George Municipality.
“When no progress was made in establishing the office, councillor van Wyk approached me. I took the matter up with Mayor Naik, who informed me the municipality would not be appointing councillor Van Wyk to that position. I informed councillor Van Wyk. The matter ended there,” he said.
DA MEC for local government Anton Bredell has appointed forensic consultants to probe allegations of maladministration, fraud, corruption, and the interference or attempted interference in the appointment of personnel.
It’s not clear whether Van Wyk’s case would also fall within the scope of the investigation.
Bredell’s office said investigators Anthony Botha and Annie Mentoor were also expected to look into procurement issues related to an infrastructure project. Bredell’s investigation comes amid several raids and investigations by the Hawks into similar allegations. But the office said the Hawks’ process was a criminal investigation and different from Bredell’s.
When Botha requested assistance from Bredell’s office after he had picked up an anomaly with an investment made by the municipality with Old Mutual, none was forthcoming.
Once considered one of the best-run in the province, achieving clean audits for the past seven years, George Municipality has now been subjected to several investigations.
A source who spoke on condition of anonymity said the crux of the DA “interference” was to hide “real corruption” and political protection of certain officials from the leadership.