Mayor orders suspension of media contract

Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Athol Trollip wants the municipality to freeze its multimillion-rand communications contract with Johannesburg-based company Mohlaleng Media, pending a full investigation into the deal.

This comes after The Herald revealed yesterday that the municipality had lifted the cap on Mohlaleng’s spending, giving it carte blanche tospend as it pleased.

Only halfway through its three year contract, Mohlaleng had spentR20.8-million, although the contract was initially capped at R10-million.

Trollip said the contract bore the hallmarks of being “irregular ”.

In a statement yesterday, Trollip said: “I have today asked the city manager to freeze the contract with Mohlaleng Media with immediate effect, and conduct a comprehensive investigation into the deal.

“I was disturbed to learn that the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality had spent in excess of R21-million on this contract, some of which was allegedly used to remunerate political appointments under the former administration.

He had asked for av freeze on the contract and an investigation, Trollip said.

“This administration will not tolerate irregular, wasteful or unnecessary expenditure, in any form, and any contract that is alleged to have facilitated any expenditure of this nature will be fully investigated and scrutinized."