Seventeen idle waste trucks a shocking indictment of ANC governance in Ekurhuleni

by Cllr. Jill Humphreys — DA Member of the Environment, Resource and Waste Management in Ekurhuleni

Date: 02 August 2021

Release: Immediate

Type: Media statement

An Internal Audit (IA) Report on potential irregularities related to the procurement of 17 trucks by Waste Management, lays bare the shocking amount of wasteful expenditure ratepayers have had to incur under the ANC-led City of Ekurhuleni.

The report, presented at the July Council meeting, traces how two trucks were purchased in 2011, and another 15, two years later, under extremely dubious terms that lacked substantial detail. According to a previous report released by the Environmental Resource and Waste Management Services Oversight Committee, the 17 trucks inexplicably sat idly between the years 2012 and 2017, after close to R35-million of taxpayers money was spent on them.

A subsequent oversight visit to the Alberton depot confirmed the non-use of the 17 trucks and, thereby, prompted the need for an internal investigation.

Aside from their non-use, the procurement of the trucks smacks of irregularities and contains volumes of unanswered questions. The details of the initial contract are vague as it is unknown whether the purchase included a maintenance contract, nor is it known what the specifications of the trucks were.

Unfortunately, many of the officials implicated in the irregular procurement, and the mandated oversight, meant to follow thereafter, have since left the Metro. Their incompetence, however, is glaring, as they left an extraordinary trail of unsubstantiated, unsigned documents that were shared vaguely between Waste and Fleet Departments in a blatant attempt to avoid accountability; thereby delaying any reporting to Council on the matter. A forensic investigation conducted in 2018 was only brought to MPAC in 2020, demonstrating the tardiness or deliberate delay of the oversight process.

It is not that questions were not asked. The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Ekurhuleni repeatedly questioned how the trucks were being used along with other practical concerns regarding licensing and driver training, but instead were met with vague replies from officials intended to delay and obfuscate the oversight process.

The fact that the IA Report calls on Metro officials to follow the basic tenets of the key legislation that governs local government, such as the MFMA, the Systems Act and the Structures Act, as well as calls for “further training” speaks volumes of the sheer incompetence of the Metro officials, who have been filled by predominantly ANC-loyalists.

In its current form, the IA Report is glaringly incomplete with a number of unanswered questions. It is grossly inadequate for the Report to simply say it is satisfied with the findings and not recommend any remedial or disciplinary action against those implicated.

The DA finds this unacceptable and calls for the Special Investigations Unit to take up the matter, in order to provide insight into some of the areas that the AI Report has overlooked. These include the following:

· Why R15-million was incurred by the Metro to upgrade the trucks if they are not in use?

· Why has there been no insurance claim paid out to the Metro for one of the stolen trucks (not mentioned in the IA Report)?

· Why was the Forensic Report only bought to MPAC in 2020, some two years after completion? and finally;

· Why has there been no mention that fruitless and wasteful expenditure occurred as a result of the project? Why did the Attorney General not report this?

This report only scratches the surface in answering why this project has failed so spectacularly, and why so much of taxpayers have been wasted on something that has provided nothing in the way of services for our communities. The ANC-led coalition in the Metro should be ashamed of how they have failed the residents of Ekurhuleni.

#Time4Change

*Coalition Partners: African Independent Congress (AIC), Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), Patriotic Alliance (PA) and Independent Ratepayers Association of South Africa (IRASA)

Cllr. Jill Humphreys

DA Member of the Environment Resource and Waste Management in Ekurhuleni