Nelson Mandela Bay mayor in unsuccessful bid to write off R3.2bn in wasteful and unauthorised expenditure

The Nelson Mandela Bay Metro (NMBM) executive mayor, Babalwa Lobishe, on Thursday unsuccessfully tried to get the council to write off R3.2-billion in fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

Nelson Mandela Bay has the highest amount of fruitless and wasteful expenditure in South Africa, which recently increased by R2-billion to stand at R24-billion.

A damning Treasury review of the metro’s adjustment budget noted that the city’s financial governance had declined in the 2024/2025 financial year, when it received a qualified audit opinion. In the previous financial year, it received an unqualified audit outcome.

The Treasury said that no documents could be found for R2.6-billion of the city’s fruitless and wasteful expenditure and suggested the council consider writing it off. However, in terms of legislation, before this can be done, there must be an investigation by the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC).

While the ANC has often used the numbers of the coalition government in Nelson Mandela Bay to push through motions, the party’s Itumeleng Ranyele, who is the chairperson of the MPAC, said they had not agreed for Lobishe’s motion to be tabled in council. She said it was rejected by the political whips.

“I want the CFO [chief financial officer] to explain why it was tabled here,” she said.

Lobishe threatened to charge the ACDP’s Lance Grootboom with “confusing the council” after he said he written to the Treasury about the planned write-off and was told: “It is important to clarify that the referenced paragraph, as contained in the 3 March 2025 National Treasury’s letter to the municipality, was never intended to suggest, advise or imply that the R2.6-billion irregular expenditure could be processed by the municipal council without an investigation by the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC).”

Morné Steyn, from the Democratic Alliance, a long-serving member of the MPAC, told the council meeting the ANC had “tried this before”, referring to an attempt to write off R7-billion in fruitless and wasteful expenditure without an MPAC investigation, which was reversed by the Treasury.

Lobishe then withdrew her motion.

Her report in support of the motion, attached to the council agenda, is identical in respect of every department except for the amounts to be written off. She alleged that the metro had lost hundreds of files dealing with expenditure, but gave no details as to how the files “went missing”.

Suspicious

Grootboom said the attempt to write off the R3.2-billion was very suspicious.

“Why is the ANC afraid? What are they hiding?” he asked.

Lobishe said she would ask the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, to decide on the matter.

The following paragraph is repeated several times in Lobishe’s report motivating for the the money to be written off:

“Council will be aware that NMBM has a huge burden of being number 1 in the country for it being known as the city whose annual financial statements discloses an exorbitant amount of the Unauthorised, Fruitless and Wasteful Expenditure. In dealing with such a situation ordinarily … reports must be prepared for them to be submitted to the MPAC for a recommendation to be made to Council to consider approving write-offs or referral to the Disciplinary Board whenever required.”

Lobishe claimed the Treasury said fruitless, unauthorised and wasteful expenditure could be written off for the following departments:

• The office of the chief operating officer: R203-million;


• The Electricity and Energy Department: R449.8-million relating to 30 tenders;


• The mayor’s office: R900,000;


• The Human Settlements Department: R46-million relating to 54 tenders;


• The Infrastructure and Engineering Directorate: R1.3-billion relating to 163 tenders;


• The Public Health Department: R42-million relating to three tenders;


• The Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture Directorate: R87-million relating to 36 tenders; and


• The Safety and Security Directorate: R31.7-million.

Grootboom said the mayor had not enclosed the internal audit report along with her own report.

The chief whip of the Democratic Alliance, Gustav Rautenbach, said the offices of the speaker, the executive mayor and the city manager had not complied with timelines for the preparation and delivery of council agendas.

Neither the adjustment budget, the draft budget or the draft integrated development plan (IDP) were delivered on time.

Solidarity

In a rare moment of solidarity in a very divided council, councillors agreed that there were huge problems in the administration with officials not doing their work.

“Officials are sleeping on the job,” said councillor Khanyisa Mani from the ANC. Other councillors accused the city officials of deliberate sabotage.

Grootboom said the problem was the acting city manager, Sizwe Mvunelwa, and the newly appointed chief financial officer, Jackson Ngcelwane. “He cannot do his job,” said Grootboom. “For the first time in history, we have not received a budget or an IDP on time. It was given to me this morning at 10am, and it is almost a thousand pages long.”

He said there must be an investigation into whether the city officials could be charged for not delivering these crucial documents on time.

Lawrence Troon from the Good party said incompetent officials were being protected.

“Come 2026, Nelson Mandela Bay will be in the gutter,” he said.

Mvunelwa said he didn’t know why the documents were sent out so late as he had signed off on them last Thursday.

The DA’s Retief Odendaal last week wrote to to the MEC for cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Zolile Williams, that an intervention in the metro was “beyond urgent.”

He asked that a city manager be seconded to the metro.

“Service delivery in the metro has come to a grinding halt and I am led to believe that more than 100 service delivery contracts are currently not in place. These range from contracts for the fixing of streetlights to grass-cutting services. Thousands of water leaks have also been left unattended across the metro and are compromising a sustainable water supply to parts of Nelson Mandela Bay.”

Odendaal said the metro had managed to spend only 26% of its capital budget in what he called “an unmitigated disaster”.

He said he would seek help from the minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, Velenkosini Hlabisa.

The current city manager, Dr Noxolo Nqwazi, has been suspended for 16 months. DM