The City of Cape Town said it is investigating allegations of corruption related to a R186m urban waste management tender involving two senior managers.
“The allegations regarding tender collusion were brought to my attention, and I have since referred them to the acting executive director of Urban Waste Management for a thorough investigation,” said MMC for urban waste management Grant Twigg.
The tender was intended for municipal refuse collection from 334,658 households around informal settlements in the city.
“The recent allegations of tender collusion and corruption within the Urban Waste Management directorate are a stark reminder of the systemic failures that plague the DA administration in the City of Cape Town,” said leader of the ANC opposition in the city Banele Majingo.
DA is running a corrupt municipality. It failed to scrutinise work done against invoices, failed to identify ghost workers, and failed to prevent the squandering of taxpayer funds.
— Banele Majingo, leader of the ANC in the city
“This shows that there is a collapse of accountability in the urban waste management and that undermines the essence of public service.”
He added that the two senior managers, entrusted with overseeing vital public services, allegedly exploited their positions for personal gain by not disclosing their directorships in one of the companies that were awarded tenders.
The ANC caucus questioned how the city’s procurement processes did not pick up that there was a conflict of interest involving one of the company’s directors and why their procurement processes failed to flag the irregularities.
“We must confront the uncomfortable truth, and this is what we have been saying for so long: the DA is running a corrupt municipality. It failed to scrutinise work done against invoices, failed to identify ghost workers, and failed to prevent the squandering of taxpayer funds,” said Majingo.
Twigg said he was not in a position to provide further information at this stage as he was not directly involved in the investigations.
“We understand the importance of trust and accountability in local governance, and we will continue to prioritise these values as we work to improve service delivery across the board,” he said.
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