The black eThekwini Municipality in Durban has set aside R12.8 million to pay mostly white lawyers, even though it has its own black legal department with 28 legal advisers.
This comes as the city faces a barrage of civil lawsuits ranging from potholes to libel.
A report tabled before the finance and procurement committee meeting laid out plans to brief 22 law firms, costing more than R580 000 each.
The cases include litigation, conveyancing, commercial law, labour law and town planning.
The city’s legal bills have escalated from R600 000 in 2012 to R5.9 million last year after an increase in insurance claims against the municipality that were handed to private attorneys to resolve.
Advocates were briefed to handle “complex matters” ranging from urgent applications to interdicts, claims of more than R300 000, evictions and others.
IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi said they had complained about the capability of the city’s legal department for a long time.
Often the city appealed in cases which it lost again, which indicated that it was not being properly advised.
“The conditions-of-service debacle is a perfect example of this. The legal department is supposed to ensure that money in the city is spent well, but they still spend the most,” he said.
“We can’t have a team of lawyers that cannot even advise the city properly. We need capable people in this department.”
The municipality has 22 attorneys at Shell House, who cannot represent the city in court.
Answers on reasons for the lack of representation from the city have not been forthcoming.
The continuous surge in legal fees has prompted many questions. “What is our own legal department doing if the number of external consultants keeps increasing? We have long questioned the competency of our legal department,” a councillor remarked.
The department has eight litigation legal advisers, four labour advisers, seven legislative drafting advisers and nine legal support advisers.
The budget for the department in the last financial year was R17 546 680.