Metro officials face suspension

FOUR of the five Nelson Mandela Bay officials alleged to have been caught stealing confidential municipal files were served with notices of intention to suspend them yesterday. This was confirmed by acting city manager Johann Mettler, although he refused to name the officials. Insiders, however, claim that the director of social development, education and administration, Simiselo Nogampula, and assistant director of housing delivery, Nokuthula Tetyana, are among those in hot water. The third official is a housing project manager, the fourth a data capturer, while the fifth has yet to be identified. Both Nogampula and Tetyana have denied any involvement in the matter. However, their names were supplied by four independent sources. Nogampula said he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, while Tetyana said she had been out of town at the time. Earlier this year, housing delivery director Mvuleni Mapu was suspended for alleged misconduct and corruption, while former executive director Lindile Petuna was also suspended on similar charges before he signed a settlement deal with the metro. In September, Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu seconded 12 national bureaucrats to the metro as part of the government’s intervention to clean up what has, for several years, been a seemingly untouchable department mired in endless allegations, secrecy and power struggles. Last week, national Human Settlements spokesman Xolani Xundu said five housing officials had been caught by a security guard attempting to load files onto a bakkie outside the Mfanasekhaya Gqobose Building. The files were said to contain information about RDP housing projects, as well as contracts between the municipality and building contractors. Should this information have disappeared, the metro would not have been able to pay some of the housing contractors for work completed.

This could have resulted in mass protests and sit-ins. Mettler said four officials had been served with the notices of intention to suspend them. “We will pursue this matter to the very end. If any other people are involved, we will follow this to the letter,” he said. When The Herald contacted Nogampula yesterday to confirm if he had received his suspension notice, he said he had not been served. On Monday, he said he had gone to the Mfanasekhaya Gqobose Building to print out claim forms as his vehicle’s tyre had been damaged by a pothole. He said he had just been unlucky to be in the building on the day the alleged theft happened. “I know absolutely nothing about it. I am not involved in that. I cannot stoop that low to steal municipal files – I don’t have a reason to,” he said. “I was at the wrong place at the wrong time. “I don’t know who is peddling these lies about me. I am very worried about my name being dragged through the mud.” Nogampula said he had been talking to the project manager, also implicated in the scandal, when he noticed a commotion in the building. Tetyana, the former SACP district secretary, has also denied receiving any suspension notice. She said yesterday she had been out of town at the time of the alleged incident. However, Tetyana said she had been locked out of her office on Monday and believed it was linked to a witch-hunt by acting housing boss Mandla George against her. “Somebody was appointed to act in my position even though I am an appointed assistant director,” Tetyana said. Asked why she thought there might be a witch-hunt against her, Tetyana said it was because she refused to recognise George as an acting executive director when he was less qualified and had less work experience than her.