The EFF wants Nelson Mandela Bay deputy mayor Khusta Jack to step down over his business dealings with the municipality.
ANC councillors called for his resignation during a council meeting earlier this month when it was revealed that in a letter dated December 10, Jack informed city manager Noxolo Nqwazi that one of his companies had been awarded an informal tender.
The amount did not exceed R200,000. Yonke Installations was hired to carry out emergency repairs on the Bay’s fibreoptic network.
The EFF called for Jack’s resignation at a media briefing on Wednesday where plans were also outlined for the party’s March 20 shutdown, when they will call for the end of load-shedding and the immediate resignation of President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Ngqisha said it was wrong for Jack to think that making the declaration absolved him of gross misconduct.
“The Municipal Systems Act states very clearly that councillors are not allowed to do business with the municipality to avoid situations where they would use their political influence to gain an unfair advantage.”
Ngqisha said the party believed Jack had more companies working for the municipality and had written to Nqwazi and chief financial officer Sewlyn Thys to provide details if this was the case.
“We want to know when the mayor [Retief Odendaal] became aware of Jack’s benefiting from a tender ... because if it comes out he was aware and did nothing, we are coming for him too,” he said.
Ngqisha said Jack’s alleged fraudulent activities had received “political protection” from Odendaal.
The party had written to him in terms of council rule 25 to respond to questions relating to the report.
He said residents deserved to know the “so-called good governance” of the DA was nothing but rhetoric.
Jack, however, said he had declared his business interests in 2021 and informed Nqwazi in December that he had just become aware that one of his companies, Yonke Installation, had done work for the city.
He wrote in his letter that in terms of the Municipal Systems Act he was duty-bound to make the disclosure.
“I said when they prove that I never declared my companies, then I will resign as deputy mayor,” he said.
Jack said he was not aware his company had obtained the informal tender until he made the discovery at one of his quarterly meetings with operational managers.
He then wrote to Nqwazi to notify her, but before that he had already declared all his companies to the municipality.
“The councillors are confusing the letter I wrote to the city manager and the declaration.
“They are confused and don’t understand what they are accusing me of,” he said.
“What the EFF is doing is showing that they are blind to the written word.”
He said his company was already on the municipality’s database for annual tenders and had responded to a request for a quote.
He said since being elected as a councillor he had declared his businesses every February.
Odendaal, meanwhile, said he had no powers to protect Jack and had no control over investigations by the rules and the ethics committee.
However, he said if Jack had committed any transgression, speaker Gary van Niekerk should act.
“There is no way I can protect Jack,” he said.
“However, there is an ongoing investigation and when concluded the report would be dealt with by the council and recommendations would be taken from there.”
Odendaal said he was a practising attorney and would never involve himself in something that was contrary to the legislature.
“I have no control over the processes and all must understand that Jack is not accused of fraud or corruption but a breach of code of conduct and this is not a criminal matter but one of ethics,” he said.
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