The Durban High Court has this week issued a new ruling for the eThekwini Municipality, confirming that Sandile Ngcobo, one of its employees, must appear in court in connection with the fraud and corruption case involving Zandile Gumede, the former mayor of the municipality.
Ngcobo, who is the fifth accused in the matter, is currently the deputy head of Supply Chain Management of the municipality. He is accused with 21 others of conspiracy to commit fraud, money laundering, and contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act and the Municipal Systems Act relating to the R300 million Durban Solid Waste (DSW) tender.
The court prepared this after Ngcobo learned on Monday that his special leave was not approved.
His counsel, advocate Jimmy Howse SC, told the court that Ngcobo applied for special leave on February 14, 2025. The session of this trial started on February 17 and will end on March 28.
“He was informed on Monday afternoon that this special leave was refused by the chief financial officer,” Howse said.
He said the senior State prosecutor, advocate Ashika Lucken, phoned the CFO, who we cannot name as per court order. The CFO gave assurance that Ngcobo would not be prohibited from attending the court proceedings.
“The CFO said Ngcobo would have to fill another leave form,” he added.
Howse said that on Tuesday, Ngcobo went to the municipality and physically filled out another leave form for the remainder of this period. He said the CFO was not present at the office as he was attending the mayor’s lekgotla.
Howse further confirmed that Ngcobo would be present during the court proceedings.
“My lady, I am placing it on record that the refusal of the special leave would be challenged in a different forum because it is obviously a labour issue,” he said.
A close source explained that if a municipality employee is applying for a special leave to attend court, a city manager approves it if it is more than five days.
“However, there must be a motivation that is submitted by a deputy manager of that cluster,” the source added.
According to the State, during the commission of the offences in 2017 and 2018, Ngcobo was the deputy head of supply chain management in the city and also the chairperson of the Bid Adjudication Committee (BAC).
“He co-signed the evaluation report for the DSW tender with the fourth accused Allan Robert Abbu on 12 December 2017. Abbu’s line manager was not included in this process,” the State said.
Abbu was the deputy manager of DSW and was responsible for the management of the procurement processes related to the DSW contract.
In the indictment, the State said Ngcobo abused his positions to improperly award DSW tender by not recusing himself in terms of the municipal regulations.
The matter continues.