There are reportedly fears in the DA that Patricia de Lille is casting the party in a poor light
In a circular sent to staff, Cape Town Mayor Patricia De Lille confirmed that city manager Achmat Ebrahim had tendered his resignation effective on January 12.
Ebrahim’s resignation comes at a crucial time when the City of Cape Town is facing a severe water crisis and internal conflict within the Democratic Alliance caucus has sowed divisions in the city leadership.
IOL published excerpts from the circular, where De Lille said that Ebrahim was confident he could have defended allegations against him that are contained in a report by Bowman Gilfillan.
“His last working day was 12 January 2018. In his resignation letter Ebrahim made it clear that he is able to quite easily defend the allegations made against him in the Bowman Gilfillan report,” De Lille said in the circular.
“He further stated that in terms of the ongoing investigations, he would furnish my office with copies of all the evidence files as it pertains to his involvement in these allegations which have already been handed to Bowman Gilfillan and which clearly show that the allegations against him are baseless.”
Ebrahim is one of the city’s longest-serving managers, with a career spanning 40 years. In recent months, he became embroiled in the divisions within the DA caucus in the Western Cape after allegations mounted that he had accepted an order from De Lille to cover up alleged wrongdoing by city transport commissioner Melissa Whitehead by not making the council aware of irregularities in payments Whitehead made regarding MyCiti buses. Among those allegations is that Whitehead made a payment of around R44-million to Volvo for bus chassis.
A second allegation from the Bowman Gilfillan report accuses Ebrahim of concealing alleged misconduct from Whitehead when she was a member of a committee that evaluated bids to redevelop Cape Town’s Foreshore precinct in 2017.
Ebrahim told Bowman Gilfillan investigators that he believed there was wrongdoing but he was prevented from reporting any misconduct to council by De Lille. His statement is included in the report which was submitted by Johan Kruger, Bowman’s head of governance‚ compliance and investigations, on December 29.
“In his defence‚ he contends that he took all reasonable steps on his part to comply with his obligations‚ and that he was ultimately precluded from doing so by the instructions to the contrary from the executive mayor‚” said Kruger’s report.
About a week ago an investigation into De Lille was ordered because of the accusations that she had ordered Ebrahim not to report Whitehead’s alleged misconduct to council. Ebrahim and Whitehead were due to submit reasons to the DA by Friday on why they should not be suspended. The Bowman Gilfillan report recommended that both face disciplinary action.
Despite laying the blame on De Lille in response to these allegations, he said in his resignation that it was a “tremendous honour” to serve with her, according to the circular.
“After almost 40 years of dedicated and loyal service, he stated in his letter that his obvious primary consideration at this stage of his life was that of his personal and family’s wellbeing. Ebrahim expressed his thanks for the excellent leadership and political guidance stating it was a tremendous honour for him to serve with me as the Mayor,” De Lille said in the circular.