Buffalo City – praag.org

Mayor held for Mandela fraud

The Daily Dispatch newspaper reported how politically-connected “tenderpreneurs” cashed in on the Nelson Mandela’s chaotic memorial service in December last year.

Factions in the ANC in the Eastern Cape had T-shirts made with public money.

The newspaper said it broke the story a few weeks after Mandela’s funeral.

Buffalo City municipality Mayor Zukiswa Ncitha and two others were arrested on Monday for alleged fraud involving Nelson Mandela’s memorial service, Eastern Cape officials said.

Hawks spokesperson Paul Ramaloko confirmed on Monday that Ncitha, her deputy Temba Tinta and speaker Luleka Simon-Ndzele had been arrested and would appear in the East London Magistrate’s Court on the same day.

ANC councillor charged with selling jobs

An ANC councillor in East London, in the Eastern Cape, has been charged with theft for allegedly selling council jobs, according to a report on Monday.

A jobseeker could reportedly secure work as a cleaner, grass cutter, admin clerk or driver for between R500 and R1 500, said Dispatch Online.

Last week, angry Mdantsane residents visited the home of the councillor to ask about the promised jobs at the Buffalo City metro. They found a bag of job resumes under a bed

Warrant Officer Hazel Mqala reportedly confirmed to the online news site that a docket has been opened.

It reported that the councillor had denied the allegations, and claimed they were part of a political smear campaign.

No arrests had been made yet. – Sapa

South African ‘democracy’ spawns more faeces wars, now in East London

A 'faeces protestor' being arrested at Esplanade station, Cape Town — A ‘faeces protestor’ being arrested at Esplanade station, Cape Town

Human waste has been thrown at a Buffalo City ANC councillor’s house, the Eastern Cape local government department said on Sunday.

The incident last week was condemned by MuniMEC, a government co-ordination forum made up of all mayors and municipal managers who meet quarterly with MEC Mlibo Qoboshiyane.

It had noted the anger of some communities, and was committed to eradicating bucket toilets in the province, it said.

No amount of “splashing of human excrement” would help provide services to the people.

Only focused engagement would help deal with the underlying issues affecting delivery.

MuniMEC said the provincial government had so far provided sanitation to 1,275,204 people — about 74 percent of those needing it.

Earlier this month, human waste was dumped on the steps of the Western Cape legislature.

The next day a group of people in Khayelitsha threw human waste at a bus on which Western Cape premier Helen Zille and others had travelled to a green economy event.

A few days later, 184 people were arrested with buckets of human waste at the Esplanade railway station in Woodstock, Cape Town. They had allegedly planned to dump it in the city. – Sapa

Eastern Cape mayor blows R800 000 on ‘domestic travel events’

Buffalo City mayor Zukiswa Ncitha spent almost R800,000 of ratepayers’ money on domestic travel for events, most of which did not appear on her official diary, Dispatch Online reported on Wednesday.

The money was reportedly spent on luxury vehicles and hotel accommodation around the country.

Documents which the Dispatch said it had obtained showed that some of Ncitha’s trips, including one which cost more than R12,000, were made while she was in meetings at her East London City Hall offices.

The trips were billed under difference references — mayor Zukiswa Ncitha, Z Ncitha, M Ncitha, and Z Ncitha mayor.

Her son, Zukile, who carries the same initials as her, also works for the Buffalo City metro, according to the report.

Contacted for comment by the Dispatch, Ncitha dismissed any suggestion that her son or any of her family might have used her mayoral travel budget. – Sapa