NEW information has emerged about the Mill Park rezoning debacle which not only pokes holes in a report by Nelson Mandela Bay's internal audit division but, some hope, could also exonerate human settlements boss Lindile Petuna.
Documents leaked to The Herald reveal two conflicting memorandums, both dated June 23 2009, signed by the town planner who assessed the Erf 23 Mill Park rezoning application.
The one letter, stamped by the municipality, recommended that the application be approved, while the second letter with the municipal letterhead – but not stamped – refused the application.
A report compiled by the Bay's internal audit department recommended Petuna be disciplined for influencing the outcome of a Mill Park rezoning application by refusing to recommend an approval, contrary to council policy.
According to the report by internal audit head Bonnie Chan, Petuna – at the time assistant director of land use management – allegedly instructed his subordinate to amend her report from a refusal to a recommendation of approval prior to the November 2009 housing and land committee meeting.
This was despite the fact that the Newton Park Policy Plan prohibited businesses in that portion of Westview Drive, Mill Park.
The audit report also contains claims that Petuna's alleged instruction was prompted by a visit from a representative of the applicant, Advocate Renee van Rooyen SC.
However, a Petuna supporter close to the matter is adamant that the town planner initially approved the application and prepared the conflicting report later.
He claims Petuna was not unduly influenced by Van Rooyen's intervention because the town planner had already approved the application.
"I want to know why [internal audit] did not take this first letter into account.
"This is the first letter because it has a stamp and reference number whereas the other letter, which [internal audit] has, was written later and backdated.
"Everyone knows that the municipality stamps all its letters and this [stamped] one [is] the one the courts would recognise."
But in the internal audit report, it states: "[The town planner] informed Internal Audit that during the assessment she requested Petuna to peruse the draft technical report dated June 23 2009 that she had prepared, during which he indicated that he could not understand why she recommended refusal of [the] application for rezoning."
Municipal spokesman Roland Williams said the city was aware of a second letter which recommended approval. - Rochelle de Kock