---

·      Mpumalanga Coghsta head, Samkelo Ngubane, the judgement was total miscarriage of law ·      Judgement is bad case law ·      The Mpumalanga High Court had found that former MEC, Busi Shiba, lied under oath

---

Sizwe sama Yende

---

Mpumalanga Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (Coghsta) MEC, Speedy Mashilo, has appealed a Mpumalanga High Court judgement setting aside a damning forensic report against Emalahleni officials.

The Mpumalanga High Court had found on August 21 that Mashilo’s predecessor, Busi Shiba,  lied, was dishonest and had perjured herself while trying to defend a forensic audit company, Analytical Forensic Investigation Services (AFIS), for not giving the targeted officials a right of reply.

Shiba hired AFIS in 2021 to investigate allegations of massive corruption in the Emalahleni Local Municipality, and AFIS’s findings were damning – linking officials to overpayment of R11.8 million on travelling allowance, irregular payment of R4.4 million towards a company awarded a tender to construct a landfill site and bulk outflow sewer.

AFIS’s report also found that former mayor and now Correctional Services deputy minister, Lindiwe Ntshalitshali, increased managers’ salaries without a council resolution causing a loss of about R1.5 million.

AFIS recommended that an in-depth investigation be conducted on the recruitment of traffic cop trainees after it was revealed the selection process was biased to children, relatives and girlfriends of politicians.

Mpumalanga Coghsta head, Samkelo Ngubane, said that the department believed that Judge Brian Mashile erred in the analysis of the case.

“The facts were not taken into consideration, hence the judgement is based on issues adversely misconstrued and were a total miscarriage of the law,” Ngubane said.

“⁠The senior counsel has advised the matter be appealed as the judgement is bad in the sector and too baseless to state the least.  ⁠It is also a bad case law for the sector that may hamper similar cases for the future,” he added.

In setting aside the AFIS report, Judge Mashile said in his hard-hitting judgement that the investigation carried a mandate to ensure that the targeted municipal officials were tarnished.

Emalahleni municipal manager, Sizwe Mayisela, and implicated officials – chief finance officer, Jabulile Hlatshwayo, Tlhapela Lelaka (technical services director ), Colin Brentjies (technical services deputy director) and Edwin Sedupane  (former deputy director for financial planning and strategy) – resorted to apply for the review and setting aside of the report.

However, when they sought confirmation if the report, which was leaked, was final or not as they had not been summoned to state their case, Shiba did not respond.

 “It is conceivable and reasonable to infer that AFIS carried a mandate to ensure that the applicants and whoever else was targeted by these investigations would be tarnished by the findings of the report and be rendered unsuitable to continue employment in their current positions,” Mashile had said in his judgement.

“If the MEC was genuine, she would have made certain to receive and consider the representations of the applicants, would not have perjured herself,” he added.

Mashile also found that AFIS did not consider contents of the municipality’s report that Mayisela had compiled and submitted to Shiba to answer to matters that were investigated.

“It is hard to shake off the feeling that the denial by AFIS and the MEC that the report that was making rounds in the media was final was a strategy to stop the applicants from taking measures to protect themselves against the devastating outcome of the report,” he said.