Pressure on Msunduzi Municipality Speaker over illegal rental

THE EFF has vowed to mount pressure to hold ANC-run Msunduzi Municipality Speaker Eunice Majola will come under the spotlight on Wednesday, to account for breaching state policies prohibiting councillors from occupying rental properties that belong to municipalities.

Majola has from 2022 to date “illegally” rented a suburb house belonging to the municipality, and was alleged to have jumped the queue of other people who had applied to the municipality for rental houses.

The issue of Majola occupying the house in Hayfields, one of the city’s upmarket suburbs, has been in the public domain since 2022 when the DA first questioned it.

However, the Sunday Tribune has established that Majola still occupies the property despite a report based on a forensic investigation, released to the council by then-municipal manager Lulamile Mapholoba last year stating that it was wrong for her to do so.

Previous efforts by opposition parties, including the African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP), to pressure Majola out of the property and be held accountable fell flat.

Now, the Economic Freedom Front’s (EFF) newly appointed caucus leader Chuma Wakeni has entered the fray and has revived the matter.

“We are going to hold her accountable at the council meeting on Wednesday,” he said.

Wakeni said that Majola as the speaker was not allowed to occupy municipality property.

“It is only staff members that are allowed and the Speaker is not a staff member, she is the member of council whose responsibility is to provide oversight on assets of the municipality,” he said.

Wakeni said the EFF councillors upon inspection of the property saw children and vehicles belonging to Majola there.

“There were animal skins there. This shows that this is her home and she has even slaughtered and we have been made aware by the municipal manager that she is renting the property for R5500 a month.

“This is a mansion and you cannot be paying R5500. We are going to demand that a forensic report on the matter must be tabled before the council,” he said.

Wakeni was unhappy that the municipality had failed to justify Majola’s continued occupation of the house, which features three bedrooms, a dining room, a lounge, and two garages.

It remained unclear what gave Majola the right to occupy the house, but the Code of Conduct for councillors, which is contained on the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs’ website reads: “A councillor may not use, take, acquire or benefit from any property or asset owned, controlled or managed by the municipality to which that councillor has no right.”

The investigation had concluded that Majola had also violated Section 160 of the Constitution.

“According to the Municipal Structures, Systems Act, and the MFMA, Clls Majola is a member of the Municipal Council… . She is therefore party of the body that are the custodians of the assets of the municipality.

“Councillors therefore cannot be tenants thereto.

“There is no provision in the Government Notice 2 June 2022 for councillors to rent municipal property,” read the forensic report.

According to the report, then-human settlements head Radha Gounden, who was dismissed for financial misconduct, had wrongly authorised Majola to occupy the house on the basis that “any person that receives a pay slip from the Municipality is regarded as ‘staff”.

“They (councillors) are members of the Municipal Council. He (Gounden) therefore applied the incorrect policy when allocating 50 Cleland Road (I recommend that we removed the physical address) for the rental to Cllr Majola,” read the report.

Wakeni alleged that Majola used the power of being a Speaker to occupy the house, which was an “abuse of power”.

Numerous calls to Majola's phone number, were not answered and she had also not responded to questions emailed to her office.

According to the municipality spokesperson Ntobeko Ngcobo, Majola did not have a house of her own.

“She said she is currently building (her house) as she will not live in a rental property forever, but she has a lease agreement and rentals are up to date,” said Ngcobo.

Provincial Cogta spokesperson Senzo Mzila has also not responded.

According to DA councillor Suraya Reddy, the house was part of the municipality’s Caravels Park and used to be occupied by the park’s manager.

However, after the park was shut down, the municipality rented the property out to a tenant who later moved out after struggling with the rent, leaving it in a state of neglect.

Reddy said the municipality later moved in to clean the property and also revamped the house “at the cost of the ratepayers’ money.”

Mapholoba’s report revealed that the repair of damages caused by vandalism cost the city more than R370 000.

Reddy said Majola signed a rental agreement with the municipality, which amounted to more than R5000 monthly.

“It is like a fully-fledged beautiful house, and she is renting only R5000 to stay there and has transferred light and water to her name.

“She pays for water and electricity because she did the transfer,” said Reddy.

ACDP councillor Rienus Niemand said he has written numerous letters to Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs over the past two years, which only acknowledged receiving the letters and promised to investigate without anything coming out of it.

Niemand alleged that besides violating the code of conduct, Majola had also short-changed the municipality by paying only more than R5000 a month.

“The speaker is paying just above R5000 a month while the commercial value of the property is R15 000 a month according to the opinion given to the council by the audit when the internal auditor did the investigation on the matter.

“That became fraud committed by both the speaker and officials who allowed this to happen,” he said.

Niemand said Majola was the only councillor occupying the municipality’s rental property.

In a letter, seen by the Sunday Tribune, provincial Cogta had instructed the demanded the municipality to investigate the matter.