City of Ekurhuleni Mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza.
Ekurhuleni mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza has been accused of “stone-walling” a report into alleged irregularities in the R1.8 billion chemical toilets contract that auditor Mpho Mafole submitted days before he was killed.
The report, which was reportedly “sanitised and whitewashed”, was reportedly never tabled in council as part of Xhakaza’s alleged efforts to keep it from the public.
Mafole, the metro’s head of the corporate and forensic audit department, was shot dead in an apparent hit while driving on the R23 in Esselen Park in June last year.
Council frustration and claims of delay
According to councillors who asked not to be named for fear of reprisal, Xhakaza was supposed to table Mafole’s report in the council within 90 days of receipt.
“We are in the seventh month now since the mayor received the report from the late Mafole and it has not been tabled in council,” a councillor said.
“What is it in that report that the mayor is hiding? If the mayor was genuine about his stance against corruption, he would have tabled the report by now.”
Climate of fear in the metro
Another councillor said Mafole’s brutal assassination has instilled an environment of fear in the metro, where officials are frightened to speak out on malfeasance.
No councillor has dared to question why the report was not tabled in council and officials were also frightened, he said.
“The report either implicates the mayor directly or those he seeks to protect,” the councillor claimed.
Brandon Pretorius, DA caucus leader in Ekurhuleni, said they submitted a Promotion of Access to Information Act application to obtain a copy of the report, but their efforts had allegedly been stonewalled by Xhakaza.
Separate controversy and pending response
The mayor is facing a public storm in the wake of revelations that he was at the scene of the murder of popular DJ Bongani Mfihlo, who was killed in a Kempton Park nightclub in September 2023.
Xhakaza has since rubbished his alleged links to Mfihlo’s murder as defamatory.
His spokesperson, Ramatolo Tlotleng, promised to respond to the allegations that Xhakaza was keeping Mafole’s report under wraps, but had failed to do so at the time of publishing.