Durban City hall is the headquarters of eThekwini Municipality. Picture: Willem Phungula
The eThekwini corruption unit, City Integrity and Investigations Unit (CIIU), is expected to table its findings on the looting of electrical products allegedly by officials at the Springfield depot at the end of the month.
The city assigned the CIIU to probe after a whistle-blower alerted the management to a scam where officials at the depot had allegedly colluded with Supply Chain Management officials to record the products as received but not physically delivered.
The Municipal Public Account Committee chairperson Thami Xuma said his committee has recently summoned the CIIU to get progress on the investigation and was assured by the unit that it was wrapping it up.
Xuma said the unit assured him and his committee that the report would be finalised and presented at the end of the month.
“The investigation is progressing very well and we are expecting it in a few weeks. It was us as the MPAC who asked for the investigations,” said Xuma.
He said the way the unit briefed his committee became clear that criminal charges would have to be opened against the people involved.
In a thread of emails a whistle-blower sent to the municipality’s senior managers, including City Manager Musa Mbhele, he revealed a sophisticated method of stealing the city’s products where the officials and employees were recording the products as received but not physically delivered.
The whistle-blower, who revealed ‘his identity’ to the city, also linked the theft of the city’s 52 LED streetlights, valued at R1.8 million, to this scam.
In November 2023, border police arrested two Mozambicans who had hidden the streetlights in a bakkie at the Kosi Bay in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
The whistle-blower said senior officials colluded with Supply Chain Management officials and service providers were involved in the scam.
The city had reported that the lights went missing from the depot, leaving officials scratching their heads trying to figure out how the items were removed from the stores without being captured on CCTV cameras.
During stock taking, the whistle-blower said the officials would bring empty boxes so that those taking stock would list the product as counted in the stock.
Furthermore, the whistle-blower revealed the inflation of prices where the municipality is paying between R1 800 to R3 600 per LED streetlight while the recommended retail price ranges from R400 to R1 500.
The municipality’s spokesperson, Gugu Sisilana, had previously confirmed that the city had received the allegations and these were being investigated.
willem.phungula@inl.co.za