The eThekwini municipality owes three service providers about R200m after failed legal action over tenders.
However, this figure could rise substantially as one service provider has claimed the city owes him R500m in unpaid fees and R63m in interest.
Last week the Constitutional Court refused to hear the city’s application for leave to appeal a 2022 ruling by Durban high court acting judge Murray Pitman, directing it to pay Daily Double Trading (trading as Pholobas Projects) R30m plus R23m in interest from February 2018.
Fresh from that lawsuit, the Durban High Court ordered the city on Wednesday to pay Bless Joe Trading R73m for marquees to accommodate floods victims in 2019, at a rate of R208,000 a day. The arrangement was the company would provide shelter for only 14 days but the city used the marquees for more than a year.
At a media briefing on Thursday, city head of legal Malusi Mhlongo revealed it had lost a legal bid against Solbeth Protection Services and owed them R41m. Mhlongo said they were shocked to learn that Solbeth owner Siyabonga Xulu was quoted in media reports saying he was suing the city for R500m.
“We are not aware of the R500m. We are only aware of the money reflected in the court papers,” said Mhlongo.
The issue of Solbeth is complicated because the owner does not want to give them details regarding his claim, he added.
“The owner of the company does not want to say anything except that everything is top secret.”
However, TimesLIVE Premium understands the company provided surveillance services to the city at the instruction of former city manager Sipho Nzuza to spy on officials.
The city is doing well in defending the taxpayers' money, and we strongly believe we had legal grounds for all the cases that we have been challenging
— Musa Mbhele, eThekwini city manager
Nzuza was appointed city manager in 2017 but was suspended in 2020 after being charged along with former mayor Zandile Gumede and others in the R320m solid waste tender fraud case. Once he was dismissed, payments to Solbeth apparently dried up.
On the issue of Bless Joe, Mhlongo said the court ruled the municipality should pay the company at a market rate.
City manager Musa Mbhele said he still has confidence in Mhlongo despite the multimillion-rand lawsuits. He said the city has won more lawsuits than those it has lost.
“The city is doing well in defending the taxpayers' money, and we strongly believe we had legal grounds for all the cases that we have been challenging,” he said.
Mbhele conceded the money they have to cough up had a negative impact on service delivery.
“Of course, I am not going to lie and say there is no impact; there is impact. If you have to pay R53m for a lawsuit, that money could have built many housing units.”
Mbhele said they are trying their best to receive a clean audit from the auditor-general.
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