BRIBERY CLAIMS AT MHLONGO CONTRACT DISCUSSIONS

MBABANE – The events of the past four months at the troubled Municipal Council of Mbabane have opened a can of worms.

Apart from the alleged division among the capital city’s councillors, serious accusations and counter accusations of bribery and scheming have emerged as the discussions on whether or not to renew CEO Gideon Mhlongo’s contract rage on.

The names of at least six councillors (identities known to this publication) have been bandied about as having been key players in lobbying others either for or against the renewal of the contract which expires next week Tuesday, July 31.

Some of these councillors (names deliberately withheld) are alleged to have first been in one camp before later changing camps to join the other group of councillors.

This is contained in a report submitted to council by Director Corporate Services Bongani Dlamini in his capacity as the then Acting CEO. He was exercising powers enshrined in Section 27 of the Urban Government Act of 1969, which gives the Town Clerk or CEO powers to report elements of omission or maladministration, by either committee members of councillors, to the council. Last week, the report was discussed during a council in Committee meeting chaired by Mayor Zephaniah Nkambule.

This section of the law compels the town clerk or CEO to, within seven days after the date for which such meeting was convened, forward the report together with the resolution thereon, to the minister.
“Councillor A bribed Councillor B with an amount of E1 000 and asked him to vote for (deliberately edited),” reads the report.
It also alleges that another councillor, who had since changed camps, approached some of his colleagues with the view to persuade them to support their move for (deliberately edited).

“Councilors ‘A and B’ were handsomely awarded for having changed and supported (deliberately edited). The first one received money and paid cash for his lounge suit while the other received about E8 000 to pay for his car (make of car withheld to protect his identity) repair costs and his driveway upgraded,” the report adds.

The bribery allegations were reportedly recorded during the committee sitting and they were brought to the attention of all the council members. It is alleged that it was the very committee members who wanted all their sessions recorded, including the bribery allegations, because they felt they were not just factual but were the cause of the impasse on the CEO’s contract renewal issue.
Last week, some councillors confided to this publication that the bribery allegations were discussed during the Council in Committee meeting where a recommendation to bring an outside investigator on the issues was made.

MESSAGE BY EMBATTLED CEO
Another source said the report also included a message, alleged to have been sent by the embattled CEO, to the mayor, alerting him about some councillors who were alleged to have been caught lobbying parliamentarians to oppose the directive by the minister on the contract renewal. The lobbying, it is alleged, took place in Ezulwini.
The source went on to point to the motion that was moved in parliament to oust the incumbent CEO as having been a result of this lobbying.
It has emerged that at the height of the bribery allegations, there were those who, pursuant to an alleged motive to frustrate the engagement aimed at renewing the contract, sabotaged the sittings by walking out of the council meeting.
This reportedly happened just when the issue was the next on the council agenda.
The observation by the report is that the council did little to bring to order the committee tasked with engaging the CEO but, instead, allegedly behaved in a way that smacked of a ‘calculated and surreptitious act consequential of maladministration’.
At its tail-end, the report therefore called upon the council to decide on whether there was commitment from the committee it appointed to engage with the view to renew the CEO’s contract. It further implored the council to consider its integrity issues by taking the appropriate action to stop the maladministration.
Moreover, it also placed on the lap of the council responsibility to act on the serious allegations that bordered on criminality. 
One of the councillors fingered in the report disclosed that issues of bribery were discussed during the Council in Committee meeting chaired by Mayor Zephaniah Nkambule where a resolution was taken regarding the matter.
Nkambule could only confirm that the two issues; the CEO’s contract renewal and the allegations of bribery, were subjects of a Council in Committee meeting which could not be elaborated upon until they have been finalised.
“You can only help me by clearly stating that I am not mandated to speak about them at this stage. Once everything has been finalised, we will definitely comment,” he said.
The mayor’s sentiments were echoed by another councillor who was fingered for alleged sabotage and bribery. The councillor, though confirming that the matter was a subject for Council in Committee, said he was not in a position to break the ethical code of conduct by divulging what was said.
“I am not afraid of what was said, but I am ethically bound not to say anything at this stage on a matter that is a subject of the Council in Committee. I hope though that everything will eventually come out,” the councillor said.  However, there was one councillor who did confide to this publication that when the matter was engaged during the Council in Committee meeting, they recommended that an outside investigator be brought to determine if the allegations of bribery were authentic.
Another councillor said a number of people were mentioned in the whole bribery debacle, but the feeling of council was that there was no tangible proof to pursue them, unless an outside body was appointed to look into the issues.
Meanwhile, Minister of Housing and Urban Development Phiwayinkhosi Mabuza said he had not been in the office to know anything about this issue or even the council resolution on his directive to have them engage the CEO on a new contract.

CORRESPONDENCE FROM COUNCIL
“I have been told that there was a correspondence from the council, which I hope to see next week when I return to office,” he said.
This therefore means that all eyes will be on the minister next week to see how he was going to handle both cases.  The councillors have since written to the minister, telling him that they would not be able to meet his deadline on his directive to have them engage the CEO on a three-year contract.
The minister had earlier indicated that failure by the councillors would lead to him exercising his powers to grant Mhlongo a five-year deal with the city. This was after a May 25, 2018 resolution by the councillors not to renew the CEO’s contract, citing that he was now too expensive for the city to maintain.
They also added his frosty relationship with both the ratepayers and councillors as another factor for not renewing the contract. The minister objected to all their reasons, pointing the councillors to what he said was a healthy balance sheet that allowed them to give the CEO up to E1.4 million per year.
The latest report, therefore, details the alleged scheming during the turbulent period of negotiating the CEO’s contract.
Both the committee tasked with the negotiation and the council at large were found to have acted in a way that frustrated the core task of engaging the CEO on a new contract.
Their conduct, according to the report, made it impractical to implement a resolution to reengage the CEO in lieu of the ministerial order.
The ministerial order culminated from a resolution of the council to opt not to renew Mhlongo’s contract when it expires next week.
The battle for the soul of the CEO has been a well-documented event in the Municipal Council of Mbabane since the end of March when he wrote to council as per the terms of his now expiring five-year contract, notifying them about his intentions to have it renewed.
The terms gave the CEO a period of three months before the expiry of the contract to express his desire to continue or to be allowed to leave.
On the other hand, it gave the council at least six months before the expiry date to indicate their desire to renew or to let him go. However, the council had not exercised the provisions enshrined in the terms and conditions of the CEO’s contract.
Councillors are said to have taken interest on the nature of his contract and appointed a team to look into it.
The team came back with recommendations that the issue be investigated and suspected that there were glaring irregularities. Another point they want investigated is whether his contract should be renewed at all, given that he will be hitting 60 years during the course of this year.

SECOND SPELL AT HELM
He is currently on his second spell at the helm of the capital city having replaced the late long serving Town Clerk Ray Sibandze. Mhlongo’s first spell was ended by 2002 Commission of Enquiry instituted by former Minister of Housing and Urban Development Stella Lukhele, which resulted in Mhlongo’s dismissal in absentia. He challenged his sacking at the Industrial Court in 2007/08 and at the time former Legal Advisor Felix Matsebula was installed as CEO.
Mhlongo then resigned, but he then bounced back to head the city in June 2010 when another former minister Pastor Lindiwe Dlamini endorsed him as the Chief Executive Officer of the Municipal Council of Mbabane.

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