Emfuleni municipal managers accused of siphoning money through law firm

Johannesburg - Emfuleni Local Municipality senior officials have been accused of allegedly siphoning public funds using a law firm representing the municipality in legal matters.

Emfuleni’s acting executive director for corporate services Vincent Phahlane, acting labour relations manager Mike Moloto, and Mmannini Mahloko - an assistant manager for monitoring and reporting, have been accused of working with Raphela Attorneys INC to milk the municipality.

Sources said this was another form of the municipality’s capture.

“This thing started almost two years ago when Phahlane and Moloto were appointed as acting managers in their departments. This thing became a principle from that period and it is still continuing,” said the sources.

They added: “This law firm is the only one getting all the litigation work and labour matters. There’s no rotation of other law firms. We have it that Raphela is having a good relationship with these managers,” said the sources.

They said the local law firms also wrote to the municipality last month and questioned why it was always using a certain law firm. The sources also alleged that the municipality hosts disciplinary hearings in the luxurious lodges of Mahloko in Risiville, situated on the northern side of Vereeniging.

The sources said this was because the three senior managers have an alleged relationship with the law firm.

“This is another municipal capture. There are no records as to how much has been paid to Raphela and how many invoices are paid. We are on the legal panel and we are aggrieved by this gross favouritism underpinned by corruption and Emfuleni is again looking the other way,” said sources.

They said acting municipal manager April Ntuli was not aware of the situation. Another group of sources in the municipality said they struggled to understand why Emfuleni prefers to host disciplinary hearings at the lodge owned by Mahloko.

“Emfuleni is bankrupt but hosting disciplinary hearings in one of the luxurious lodges owned by Mahloko, this does not make sense at all. This is a waste of taxpayers' money because the attendees are served breakfast, cookies for tea, and a full lunch. This is sad because the municipality owes Eskom and Rand Water,” the sources said.

Asked to confirm or deny the allegations, Mahloko on Thursday responded and deleted the response immediately. Moloto said questions should be referred to Phahlane or the municipality spokesperson Makhosonke Sangweni.

Phahlane also said questions should be referred to the municipality’s communication department, saying he will liaise with the related manager for a proper response.

Sagweni said there was no evidence proving the allegations, saying they were speculations with no substance. He refuted that the municipality was using the service of Raphela Attorneys only, saying the company benefited like other law firms on their panels of attorneys.

“Rotation is there and has always been there. No law firm is exclusively preferred,” he said.

Asked to send the list of all law firms that are working with the municipality, Sangweni refused, saying the appointments were made by the council.

He said the relationship between Raphela and the three senior managers was professional. Asked how much Raphela has been paid to date, Sangweni said: “Client disclosure agreements will not allow us to be specific, especially with the amount of time you gave us for the turnaround time you gave us to respond."

Asked if the other law firms have written a complaint regarding the issue of rotation of their service, Sangweni said he had no knowledge of such and would confirm by Friday morning. Raphela did not respond to the questions.

The cash-strapped municipality currently owes Eskom R5.3 billion. The municipality also owes Rand Water more than R1.4 billion. In November last year, Eskom applied for a court order as the municipality failed to settle the amount despite litigation dating back to 2018.

In December, the power utility attached the municipality’s account and movable assets, including vehicles. The embattled municipality also failed to pay the salaries of employees on time in December and January as a result of their dire financial predicament.