GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
20 October 2022
I have advised the City of Cape Town’s Municipal Manager Lungelo Mbandazayo that I won’t be able to assist his witch-hunt into who leaked information to me on the costs the City is incurring to defend its alleged criminal councillor, Nora Grose (DA).
Grose has been charged with fraud and money laundering involving City Covid-19 relief funds.
I published part of the accounting records of the legal costs on my Twitter account on 8 September 2022. The records were provided to me anonymously by City officials who questioned the moral, ethical and legal failures of using public funds to defend Grose.
At that point the City had funded Grose to the tune of approximately R500 000.
Last week, I was contacted by a Ms Thaleé de Wet of the Municipal Manager’s office, who said Mbandazayo had authorised a forensic investigation into documents published on my Twitter page on 8 September.
In my response, addressed today to Mbandazayo, I reminded him that his fiduciary duty as a Municipal Manager, clearly articulated in the Municipal Finance Management Act, was to protect public funds.
Instead of questioning the identity of the person/s in his organisation who had the ethics to try and put a stop to your nonsense, he’d do better to question the ethics of the City paying to defend a political appointee charged with defrauding it.
I advised Mbandazayo to steer clear of political machinations in the DA-led City, and rather follow the prescripts of the law.
“You should advise the City’s political leadership that your administration is obliged to assist the HAWKS and NPA in their investigations, instead of defending the accused councillor, and that the Councillor should not be using public funds for her legal defence.
“You should point out to the politicians that there is a conflict of interests between your administration’s support for the Councillor and your fiduciary obligations imposed on Municipal Managers by the Municipal Finance Management Act,” the letter to Mbandazayo recommends.
Ms De Wet was welcome to meet me, I told him, but even if I knew who sent me the Grose legal bills I wouldn’t share this information and nor was I under any legal obligation to do so.
Media Enquiries:
Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
Cell: 0825183264
Email: bretth@forgood.org.za
Janke Tolmay, GOOD Media Manager
Cell: 0733671223
Email: janke@forgood.org.za