Buffalo City Metro has appointed its former CFO, Vincent Pillay, to a new top job just four years after it sacked him for his involvement in the Nelson Mandela funeral funds scandal.Pillay was suspended by the city in 2018 and fired in early 2019 after a municipal disciplinary hearing.
The city is demanding the payment of outstanding rates and services bills, but has no intention of telling ratepayers which councillors and staff members owe it money.Last week, the Daily Dispatch reported that BCM employees and councillors owe the city R12.8m.
Security for councillors and senior officials in Buffalo City Metro is again in the spotlight after the council, in a closed meeting on Friday, approved a security detail for key officials.This comes just weeks after infrastructure director Nceba Ncunyana, who had previously acted as municipal manager, was shot dead on the N2 near Ntabozuko (formerly Berlin) on his way to a meeting. Ncunyana had been granted a protection detail by the city after he survived a second attempt on his life in 2022.
Opposition parties in the Buffalo City Metro council want councillors and senior managers in the city to submit their qualifications for scrutiny following mayor Princess Faku’s battle with the University of Fort Hare over her law degree.This comes after the official opposition DA filed a motion to be discussed at Friday’s council meeting calling for the qualifications to be verified.
The DA in the Buffalo City Metro has urged the city to embark on an audit of all its electrical infrastructure and carry out regular maintenance to avert further protracted outages.