According to the office of the Johannesburg Executive Mayor, Councillor Mpho Parks Tau, Tau has been cleared of allegations that he irregularly benefited from a financial transaction involving a consortium in which his wife, Pilisiwe Twala-Tau, has a minor shareholding.
The Chief Whip and Integrity Commissioner, Advocate Jules Browde SC, referred to media claims in this regard as “without any foundation” and “without substance”.
He also found that Tau had made a “full disclosure” of his wife’s shareholding in the City’s register of councillors’ interest. A detailed report of his investigation into these claims was presented to the City’s Ethics and Disciplinary Committee, which noted the findings and “dismissed the allegations” against Tau.
This comes after allegations made in 2012 that Tau, in his former capacity as Member of the Mayoral Committee for Finance, influenced a decision to award a tender for the management of the City’s sinking fund to Regiment’s Capital (Pty) Ltd.
Meanwhile the Gauteng South High Court has ordered the City of Johannesburg to provide the Democratic Alliance (DA) with the KPMG report detailing the administration of Joburg’s multi-billion rand sinking fund.
Allegations of fraud, money siphoning and mismanagement made by an anonymous whistle-blower prompted the DA to request a report that KPMG produced following an investigation into the fund. However, this report now must be released in full to the DA in terms of the court order and further investigations may need to take place to ensure that it is acted upon.
This High Court order is the culmination of a year-long effort by the DA to obtain this report through the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) procedures, which the City simply ignored.
Despite advising the DA’s attorney that the City did not intend to oppose the court order, the City has informed the DA that it will not be given the report directly. Instead, it will be made available through the section 79 committees, as the City claims that the report is “protected”.
The DA’s National spokesperson Mmusi Maimane said that the DA “does not accept this attempt to deviate from the specific wording of the Order that requires the City to provide the report directly to the DA and makes no provision for it to be provided to the section 79 committees.
“This only fuels speculation that the City is attempting to hide information of public interest. The DA will hold the City to the conditions of the court order and take further legal action if necessary. We cannot allow these allegations involving possible large-scale mismanagement of billions of rands worth of public funds go unaccounted.”
