The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has instituted legal action against two service providers, Access Facilities and Leisure Management (Pty) Ltd and Afrisec Strategic Solutions (Pty) Ltd, in order to recover allegedly misspent Metro funds and monies due to the Metro to the value of approximately R300 million.
“Summons was issued out of the High Court against Access and five others on 15 November 2016. The other individual defendants include Michiel Adrian Oberholzer, Chantal Du Pisani, suspended Metro Budget and Treasury employee, Nadia Gerwel, Andrea Wessels and her company Zeranza 299 (Pty) Ltd,” Chief of Staff: Office of the Executive Mayor, Kristoff Adelbert, said.
“Summons was issued out of the High Court against Afrisec and others on 19 October 2016. The other individual defendants include Mhleli Tshamase, Metro CFO, Trevor Harper, dismissed Metro Contracts Controller, Songezile Nkanjeni and Metro Assistant Director in Contract Management and Legal Compliance, Nobuntu Mgogoshe.
“This government is serious about stopping corruption in all forms. We have already identified a number of dubious contracts which have been frozen, and are now looking to recoup large amounts of public funds that our legal teams believe were spent illegally and misused.”
Adelbert added that under the previous administration, Supply Chain Management was mismanaged and overspending of public funds was allowed to continue through uncontrolled use of deviations.
“Those days are now over.
“For too long the residents of Nelson Mandela Bay have been subjected to rampant corruption and looting where hundreds of millions of Rand have been stolen by greedy officials and politicians. This was all at the expense of service delivery and economic growth, sending the Metro into a downward spiral as infrastructure collapsed and job losses grew,” he said.
“The new DA-led coalition government’s intervention has brought about much needed change, and our City is moving forward again.”
Adelbert said that the recent launch of the Municipality’s anti-corruption hotline, which has given rise to 38 new investigations, is but another way in which this government is tackling corruption head-on.
“Please call 0800 007 086 or email [email protected]
to report all acts of fraud or corruption in our Municipality,” he urged.
“All recovered public funds will be preserved and redistributed to communities through better service delivery, economic growth projects and skills development.
“Change has come to Nelson Mandela Bay, and with it a new era of freedom, fairness and opportunity for all.”
Article source: http://www.rnews.co.za/article/12004/nelson-mandela-bay-metro-takes-action-to-recoup-r300-million-from-local-companies
