Angry Msunduzi residents call for forensic investigation

Angry Msunduzi residents and ratepayers want the government to launch a forensic investigation into the local municipality, which includes Pietermaritzburg, and for lifestyle audits of its staff, alleging it is rife with corruption, political interference and mismanagement.

The residents’ latest call comes as they battle with the municipality’s new multiple billing system that has thrown some into arrears and led to the municipality threatening to disconnect their water and electricity services.

The chair of the Msunduzi Association of Residents, Ratepayers and Civics, Anthony Waldhausen, said the association had written to the treasury on 2 July and to the new KwaZulu-Natal finance MEC, Francois Rodgers, as well as provincial cooperative governance MEC Thulasizwe Buthelezi. He escalated the matter to the new national minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Velenkosini Hlabisa, on Tuesday this week. 

The association previously wrote to the public protector, Kholeka Gcaleka, in April 2023, to complain about the billing system and the municipality’s customer service failings. But Waldhausen said this week that Gcaleka’s office had advised that it would take 24 to 36 months to complete the investigation. 

He said while residents were waiting for the investigation to be completed the municipality was threatening to disconnect those who had fallen into arrears as a result of its new system. Previously bills were due on or before the 30th of each month but the new system had, for some residents, generated bills due on 15th of the month.

“You have budgeted to pay before the 30th but they just unilaterally introduced it, without public consultation, without due process and this is why we went to the public protector, because it is irregular and illegal,” Waldhausen said.

The municipality had introduced the system during the April/May 2023 billing cycle but it was allegedly only approved in a council meeting in June 2023.

“This has caused residents to be in arrears and people have been issued with disconnection letters. I am in arrears of about R10  000 and it is accumulating as a debt. I was always up to date before,” Waldhausen said.

The municipality, which was under administration from 2019 until early May 2024, is now under a Municipal Systems Act section 139(1)(b) intervention that requires it to be run by liaising directly with KwaZulu-Natal’s cooperative governance department. 

In his letter to Hlabisa, Rodgers, Buthelezi and the treasury, Waldhausen listed a raft of allegations regarding corruption and called for a meeting to discuss how the new administration will tackle “the dysfunctional municipality”.

“Despite our genuine gestures of goodwill and support, we have found that the current municipality lacks the political will and foresight to change the fortunes of the city around. We hereby would like to list the challenges of our municipality and include allegations of mismanagement and corruption of the highest order,” he said in the letter.

Among the allegations were those of financial misappropriation, corruption and political interference.

 In addition, 80% of the association’s correspondence with the municipality and political leadership has not been responded to — in contravention of chapter 2, section 5(1)(b) and chapter 4, section 17(2(a) of the Municipal Systems Act — and R32  million had allegedly been spent on sponsoring local events, one of which was linked to a municipal official.

Waldhausen added that the council has suspended municipal manager Lulamile Mapholoba on allegations that have not been investigated.

“The municipal manager submitted a comprehensive response on why he shouldn’t be suspended, and his submission was not discussed at the council meeting which suspended him. The council decision was irregular and unlawful,” Waldhausen wrote.

The labour court overturned the decision and ordered that Mapholoba be reinstated. But the municipality ignored the order and suspended him again. 

Waldhausen also alleged that the 2024-25 budget was rushed through council and approved without due process and public participation, in violation of the Constitution and chapter 4 of the Municipal Systems Act.

“We are deeply concerned about the political interference in the municipal manager’s work. He is suspended on full pay and that is counterproductive for the running of the municipality,” Waldhausen said. 

“Finance mismanagement, corruption and political interference are costing the municipality dearly and are counterproductive for the future of the city. These are a tipping point for the destruction of our municipality.

“It was for this reason that we approached the national minister of Cogta [cooperative governance] for urgent national intervention and for the national government to rescue our city.”

He called for the new administration to launch a forensic investigation and to conduct a lifestyle audit of all municipal staff, from senior management to general workers and political leaders, including the mayor, deputy mayor, speaker and councillors. 

Khulu Phasiwe, the spokesperson for the public protector, said the office had received the complaint and a combined complaint on behalf of the Chase Valley Corridor Civic Association, the Eastwood Residents and Ratepayers Association, and the Northern Areas Residents and Ratepayers Association. 

“The investigation is ongoing, and the duration of such processes is generally determined by the complexity of the matter at hand,” Phasiwe said. 

In response to questions about what action Rodgers would take regarding Msunduzi municipality and the allegations raised in the residents’ letter to him, a spokesperson for the provincial treasury, Musa Cebisa, said the finance department did “not talk to the general operational matters of a municipality” and referred questions to the provincial  cooperative governance department.

The Msunduzi municipality, the provincial and national cooperative governance departments and the national treasury had not responded to questions by the time of publication. 

The association also wrote to the former cooperative governance minister, Thembisile Nkadimeng, on 6  March, and to her provincial counterpart, Bongi Sithole-Moloi, on 13  May, regarding the same allegations of corruption and calling for a forensic investigation. 

But apart from one acknowledgement of receipt, neither responded to their concerns.