‘One of the biggest barriers to good governance in ELM has been removed’

Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) CFO Andile Dyakala has apparently turned berserk since his suspension last week on a raft of charges – including extreme gender abuse of a female acting Mayor – by alleging corruption on insurance issues he himself should have blown the whistle on long ago.

Dyakala has according to sources been avoiding having his suspension notice served on him personally. This forced ELM to ask the Sheriff of the Court to serve the notice on him over the weekend.

“ELM welcomes any disclosure of information indicating corruption or maladministration, but it needs to be said that Dyakala himself should have finalized the insurance tender whilst he served as acting Municipal Manager last year,” Municipal Manager Lucky Leseane said this week.

The Golden Triangle Chamber of Commerce (GTCoC), which has for years been demanding Dyakala’s firing, has welcomed his suspension saying one of the biggest barriers to effective governance and corruption clean-up at ELM had been removed.
But since his suspension – which followed a prior notice asking him for reasons why he should not be suspended – Dyakala has launched a social media and media distraction campaign centered on the insurance tender, which should also have been completed when he was the acting Municipal Manager.

This has compounded several of the many charges he is facing, including gross gender abuse of former acting Executive Mayor Khetiwe Ntombela – for which a court protection order was issued – and allegedly launching smear campaigns against business and media personalities in the Vaal.

Dyakala’s anger management and abuse issues are legendary at ELM and political circles, where he has in the past escaped consequence management under the protection of former ELM Speaker Maipato “Chu Chu Shoes” Tsokolibane, who deflected all attempts to suspend him by Council. But the wheel turned after last year’s municipal elections, with a completely new Council and local ANC power structure, with many ANC councillors voting to suspend Dyakala last week. “Dyakala is just wriggling on the hook – he has been in position for years as CFO and even as acting Municipal Manager but said nothing of alleged corruption reinsurance tenders before he was suspended,” said GTCoC President Klippies Kritzinger.

Kritzinger has now also demanded that Dyakala’s role in destroying the original BXCSA smart meter program with then acting Municipal Manager Oupa Nkoane also be probed due to huge ELM revenue loss and dismantling of the best infrastructure of its kind in Gauteng.

“Dyakala’s mismanagement of ELM debt to Eskom and Rand Water, non-payment of service providers and the colossal self-destruct decision on smart meters which have led directly to ELM’s present situation – the only question is why would a CFO destroy a functional revenue stream?” Kritzinger concluded.

By Craig Kotze and originally published in the Sedibeng Ster