The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Cooperative Governance has established a team to investigate the alleged death threats directed to the Auditor General’s staff auditing eThekwini Metro’s books. Earlier, eThekwini Mayor Zandile Gumede briefed the media and expressed her concerns following the incident.
MEC for Cooperative Governance in the province Dube Ncube says they are concerned about reports that auditing staff, which have been auditing books from eThekwini Metro, have received death threats.
It alleged that the audit staff received these threats after they requested certain documents from both Supply Chain Management and the city’s Integrity and Investigations which are crucial in their audit work.
MEC Dube Ncube says they will also involve police to investigate the death threats. “We are already sending a team to do an investigation at the eThekwini municipality and are in touch with all relevant people as to what lead to the situation of those threats. As a department we feel that it will be totally unacceptable. So we take this on a very serious note and we want to make sure that if needs be the police are also coming in so as to assist us should there be any investigation that leads to any threat that would have been given or said, we will ensure that police intervene in that regard.”
Gumede and City Manager, Sipho Nzuza expressed concern about these threats. Gumede, who was abroad, had to cut short her trip when these reports surfaced. According to the Mayor the municipality will together with law enforcement agencies provide security to the AG’s staff when they come back to do their work.
“We are in communication with the AG’s office and we will not leave this situation unattended, this issue must be dealt with and we must ensure that it does not repeat itself. We are fully committed to clean governance.”
City Manager Sipho Nzuza says the Auditor General’s staff was not necessarily auditing municipal accounting records, but was testing municipal controls on supply chain management. Meanwhile, the MEC for Cooperative Governance will on Monday meet with the KwaZulu-Natal Head of the Auditor General’s office.
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