WATCH | Tshwane deputy mayor election halted as EFF accuse nominee Nasiphi Moya of fraud

Chaos erupted in the Tshwane council chamber on Thursday as councillors disputed the election of a deputy mayor, accusing her of breaking the law.

ActionSA's Nasiphi Moya, a former chief of staff for former mayor Stevens Mokgalapa, has been nominated by the DA-led coalition.

She also serves in the national leadership of ActionSA as its chief of governance.

The EFF alleged Moya approved a trip to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia for R165,940 and received payment from the city directly to her personal account amounting to R10,010.50 as “pocket money”.

TimesLIVE has seen the documents detailing the approval of the trip, the expenses involved and the payments made to three officials, including Moya.

The EFF alleged Moya did not travel with the delegation and has not repaid the money.

EFF caucus leader Obakeng Ramabodu said his party wanted clarity on the allegations.

“We know the candidate has contravened the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA). She approved a trip to Saudi Arabia because she had powers to do that. She paid herself pocket money. But we have information she did not go on the trip,” he said.

”We want to know if she paid back [to] the city the R10,000 pocket money — if not, she is not fit to be in this council. If she did go on the trip she must produce her passport as evidence.”

It was important for Moya to clear her name because the allegations were serious, he said.

“The municipality has records. If she cancelled the trip because of some emergency, we understand. But where did she take our R10,000 because that pocket money was for Saudi Arabia?” 

Speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana refused to allow Moya to respond, saying the matter should be referred to the office of the city manager for investigation.

ActionSA rejected the EFF's claims. Gauteng chairperson Funzi Ngobeni said the allegations were without basis.

“These issues, which they have raised now should have been raised at the time with the then-mayor, who issued the instructions for the trip to Saudi Arabia. The EFF’s move to only raise these issues after all these years smacks of political grandstanding, considering that at the time of this allegation the EFF was in a co-operative arrangement with the DA.

“It is surprising yet not expected for the EFF to raise these claims now to score cheap political points. It is hypocrisy for the EFF to imply wrongdoing by Moya and claim to care about the expenditure of the city’s money. Since the secondment of Moya as deputy mayor on Monday, the EFF has deliberately mischaracterised the financial implications for the city. There is a seemingly desperate attempt by the EFF to tarnish Moya’s reputation,” Ngobeni said.

The MFMA states “any political office-bearer or official of a municipality who deliberately or negligently committed, made or authorised an irregular expenditure, is liable for that expenditure; or a municipality must recover unauthorised, irregular or fruitless and wasteful expenditure from the person liable for that expenditure”.

Ramabodu said the council going ahead with the election in the circumstances would be “fraudulent” and his party “refuses to be part of the mess”.

“They are going to regret this. It is going to be sad when later I have to come back and say to you, 'I told you'. What we are raising is factual. If [Moya] took the R10,000, she must say why she did not pay it back because she did not honour the trip. Because you do not want to entertain the matter, we are leaving. You will call us when you have an ethical deputy mayor because this one is not fit.”

The EFF then walked out of the meeting.

This is a developing story.

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