Mayor De Lille's office is latest stop for bus investigators

Investigators homed in on Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille and mayoral committee member for transport Brett Herron on Thursday.

Bowman Gilfillan attorneys requested access to De Lille and Herron’s computers and e-mails. The firm has been appointed by council to investigate allegations of misconduct involving the suspended Cape Town transport commissioner‚ Melissa Whitehead.

The Whitehead inquiry is looking into allegations of misspent millions‚ tender irregularities and theft which could amount to millions of rands.

In a statement‚ De Lille said: “As part of the council resolution on 5 January to appoint an independent investigator ... to probe various allegations related to the electric bus tender‚ myself and two staff members in my office voluntarily handed over our computers today as part of the ongoing investigation.

“As stated before‚ I welcome the investigation and remain committed to cooperating fully with the process. The computers which were handed over to Bowman Gilfillan earlier today were returned to my office later this afternoon.”

Herron said that in the interests of a thorough investigation into Whitehead‚ “I fully support this review of the computer data in my office and to that end I am co-operating fully with the request from Bowman Gilfillan”.

In a statement‚ he insisted his offices were not “raided”‚ adding: “It was‚ in fact‚ a polite request to allow Bowman Gilfillan auditors access to download data they consider may be relevant to their investigation.

“Clearly as the political head of the department‚ Ms Whitehead and I exchanged numerous e-mail messages. I have nothing to hide from any investigation and I look forward to an end to this matter.

In January‚ Whitehead was suspended by the city pending a disciplinary hearing.