Cape Town mayor Helen Zille on Friday released the terms of reference of an investigation into claims that the city footed a Democratic Alliance bill for a probe into controversial councillor Badhi Chaaban.
The inquiry is to be headed by a retired judge or senior advocate, who has yet to be named.
He or she is to be asked to decide whether the Chaaban investigation was warranted, and whether the council’s procurement policy was correctly applied in hiring private investigators George Fivaz and Associates to do the job.
It will also be asked to decide whether the city paid for any services it should not have.
Zille has set a December 31 deadline for the inquiry.
On Wednesday, Zille said that the city-commissioned probe into the activities of Chaaban was completely legitimate.
However, she had promised she would ask an outsider with ”impeccable credentials”, such as a retired judge or senior advocate, to establish whether council funds were misused.
She was reacting to an Independent Newspapers report that the DA-led council was ”at the centre of a potential spy scandal”.
The report suggested irregularities in the city’s payment of over R80 000 to George Fivaz and Associates for a probe into suspected bribery by Chaaban ahead of the recent floor-crossing window.
Zille said the ”convoluted” report appeared to claim that ratepayers had paid for a DA investigation into Chaaban.
”Of course any allegation of this kind is devoid of truth. The investigation into councillor Chaaban was legitimately carried out by the City of Cape Town,” she said.
She said the investigation was ordered by council speaker Dirk Smit following complaints from various councillors that Chaaban had threatened them.
Smit had had a legal obligation to probe these allegations, she said.
Zille, who is also national leader of the DA, had said the ”real question” was why police were not pursuing a complaint the city laid against Chaaban in early August.
The allegation that the city paid a DA account was ”both wrong and a red herring to draw attention away from the real criminals in the case”. — Sapa