Small-town fight over municipality's R24-million cover-up

The chairman of the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has been accused of covering up corruption involving R24-million to protect a municipal manager who happens to be a political ally.

This week Sihle Zikalala ordered the ANC in the Umdoni council in Scottburgh to rescind a decision it took last week to suspend municipal manager Xolani Luthuli.

A municipal public accounts committee report detailed how Luthuli had irregularly awarded contracts in the municipality. The tenders were for two road projects that cost the council more than double what had been budgeted.

The budgeted cost was R10-million, but the council ended up paying R24-million.

Despite the allegations, Zikalala ordered Umdoni's ANC caucus to hold a sitting on Wednesday to reinstate the manager.

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Luthuli was suspended pending an investigation into the alleged tender irregularities.

The public accounts committee found that Luthuli had not followed procedures in awarding the contract and was in breach of the Municipal Finance Management Act. The report on the investigation was adopted by the council.

But the ANC's provincial leaders intervened at the eleventh hour, demanding that its structures deal with the matter before it was handled by the council.

A source in the municipality said the ANC provincial leadership was protecting Luthuli because he led the support for Zikalala in the Lower South Coast region.

Luthuli is in the running to become the ANC's regional secretary at its regional conference scheduled for August.

If elected, he would be in a position to influence ANC delegates from his region to support Zikalala's faction, which wants Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma elected ANC president at the conference in December. But Zikalala said his decision was not based on ANC factionalism.

"It has nothing to do with politics. We said the procedure that was followed [by the council] was wrong and they must go and correct the procedure," he said.

The source questioned why the ANC's provincial leadership had interfered in a council decision to adopt a report which recommended that Luthuli be suspended.

A second source said it was wrong for the ANC to stop Luthuli's suspension as he was a municipal employee and not an elected politician.

The ANC's regional chairman in the area, Mzwandile Mkhwanazi, denied covering up corruption, saying the party was trying to ensure the council followed the law.

"We are not getting involved. All we are saying is that the law must be followed," he said.