SANDLANE FIRES A SALVO

MBABANE – Matsapha Municipal Council CEO Lucky Sukati has been described as a difficult person who does not own up to his mistakes and believes he is always right.

This, according to Mayor Sandlane Zwane, was the observation of council in its special meeting which was held on August 16, 2018.
Zwane described the chief executive officer (CEO) as being hell-bent on a power flaunting crusade.

He further said Sukati had ulterior motives in allegedly seeking to rescind the appointment of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) as the municipality’s external auditor.

Allegations

Zwane was responding to allegations raised by Sukati in his urgent application in the Industrial Court to, among other prayers, stop the disciplinary action against him and that it be declared unlawful. He stated that the need to apply corrective measures against Sukati was deliberated upon by council during that special meeting.

According to the mayor, who is represented by Sipho Simelane of SC Simelane Attorneys, the charges against Sukati emanated from his alleged move to overturn the appointment of PWC, after the municipality advertised a tender for its audit services.

Zwane narrated that the tender for the appointment of an auditor was advertised sometime earlier this year, and the procuring process was handled by the finance committee which was delegated by council, since there was no tender Board appointed for the municipality.

The mayor said the best evaluated tenderer was KPMG, while PWC was the second best company. The tender, according to Zwane, was awarded to PWC. He said the finance committee considered recommended international standards set for good corporate governance regarding to external auditors.
He told the court that it was on this basis that the finance committee recommended to council that KPMG had served the municipality for a long time, when considering the recommended periods.

Resolution

Zwane said the resolution appointing PWC as their external auditor was passed on May 31, 2018. He said since PWC was the second best tenderer, its appointment required approval from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development. The ministry’s approval, according to Zwane, was sought by a letter dated June 12, 2018 and it was granted.

Zwane told the court that it was after PWC’s appointment had been approved by the ministry that Sukati allegedly sought to draft a motion for the rescission of the resolution by which PWC had been appointed as the auditors of the municipality.
“In doing so, the applicant (Sukati) violated council’s administrative procedure and failed to use the standard template for motions to be brought before council,” said Zwane.

The mayor further told the court that Sukati attempted to seek members of council to second the motion and to have the deputy mayor to sign as the mover of the motion.
Since the motion was meant to rescind an already existing resolution by council, it had to conform to a particular format, and it had to be signed by three members over and above the mover.
 This process had to be in place before the motion could be put on the agenda, said Zwane.

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