GEORGE’S municipal manager, three heads of department and two senior officials were suspended at the weekend pending an internal investigation into allegations of mismanagement.

Town manager Cecil Africa, his brother, traffic chief Kenneth Africa, community and safety services manager Daniel Beeka, senior traffic superintendent Rochelle Jacobs, chief financial officer Louis Fourie and deputy financial officer Chris Marais were served notice of their suspension late on Thursday following a confidential council discussion.

“Notices of intention to suspend the individuals were served pending disciplinary hearings. They have until noon on March 10 to give reasons why their suspensions should not be enforced,” Mayor Mercia Draghoender said at the weekend.

She said service delivery would not be affected by the suspensions and that staff had been appointed in acting positions. Environmental services head Andre Smith will act as municipal manager.

“This is an internal enquiry and it is our intention to complete the investigation within 30 days,” Draghoender said.

Deputy mayor Castro Leholo said the ID and ANC mayoral committee supported Draghoender’s announcement.

“The decision was based on recommendations from longstanding reports following investigations into alleged mismanagement in the traffic department and the R4,2-million Disc (data integration sharing and communications) project,” he said.

Leholo said the reports were only made available to the mayoral committee after the ANC and ID wrested control of the municipality from the DA last month.

“It was only after the ANC continually put pressure on council that the door was opened to investigate these allegations.

“The preliminary investigation into the traffic department recommended a forensic investigation. The report tabled in council last Thursday recommended that officials implicated in wrongdoing be charged with disciplinary action.”

Leholo said the report on the Disc project also implicated other senior officials.

The Disc investigation was initiated last year after the Auditor-General noted tender irregularities in the 2007/08 qualified audit report.

The traffic department has been under scrutiny for several years. Last year it was revealed that the town was without speed/traffic enforcement cameras after the agreement with an external contractor expired.

Former mayor Flip de Swardt said the events leading up to the suspensions had been “a witch hunt”.

He said no evidence was tabled at the council meeting to support the suspensions.