Could the mayor who wanted to clean up corruption in the city be corrupt herself?
Terence Pillay chats to political activist and
commentator, Imraan Buccus who breaks down the facts of the Mayor Zandile
Gumede corruption case.
Listen to the podcast or read the details below:
When Zandile Gumede became mayor of Ethekwini, I did the first interview with her in her first week in office. In the interview, she promised to clean up the municipality, which had gained a muddy reputation and made a very firm commitment to stamp out corruption in all forms. I was quite pleased at her stand but thought it was still early days and only time would tell whether this was just grandstanding from someone new.
As it turns out, in May this year Gumede was arrested and granted bail of R50,000 after she appeared in the Durban Commercial Crimes Court. She faced a number of charges from corruption to fraud and even racketeering.
The axe fell on the disgraced mayor after she was accused of allegedly awarding an illegal tender to Durban Solid Waste. The sanitation company was paid in excess of R25-million to provide eight hundred chemical toilets to the city.
The city was shocked and the opposition parties called for her to be fired immediately and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. But a lot of false information and conflicting stories emerged. So in order for us to best understand the situation, I caught up with political activist and commentator from the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Imraan Buccus, who unpacks the matter for us.
You can email Terence Pillay at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter: @terencepillay1 and tweet him your thoughts.
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