Mpumalanga’s ”romeo mayor” Jeri Ngomane now faces possible censure from his own comrades within the council.
The Enhlanzeni District Municipality has established a five-person committee to probe allegations of wrongdoing against Ngomane and any other councillor implicated in multi-million rand wrongdoing in the province’s second largest municipality.
Earlier this year the Mail & Guardian reported that Ngomane’s ”wives”, Millicent Sibiya and Nomsa Nxumalo, both won sizeable contracts from the council last year, while he was mayor, hence the moniker ”romeo mayor”.
Council speaker Eva Lubede says the committee will be made up of four African National Congress councillors and one Democratic Alliance councillor.
It will look into the councillors alleged transgressions against the council’s code of conduct, as reported in a KPMG forensic audit.
Lubede says should the committee find that the councillors have a case to answer they will be given 14 days to respond before charges are formally laid.
The KPMG report found massive irregularities by council and elected officials. These included conflicts of interest, failure to follow procurement procedures and the irregular appointment of personnel.
The report revealed that between January 2000 and January this year, payments of more than R30-million had been made to ”entities in which councillors/officials hold direct indirect or interests”.
Ngomane was found to have (through Endecon Ubuntu, a company in which he held a stake) received R10 165 931 without council approval. The company was paid R3 303 065 while he was still a shareholder and received a further R6 862 866 after he had given up his stake in it.