'The ANC is f*****g around' comment lands eThekwini councillor in trouble

An eThekwini councillor is in hot water over a comment he made during a virtual meeting on Thursday.

African Democratic Change (ADeC) councillor Eugene Patchapen was heard saying, “the ANC is f*****g around; they are stealing everything” when he did not mute his microphone while speaking to his friend during the meeting, which was broadcast live on all the municipal websites.

eThekwini councillors at the time were discussing and debating a second report on Unauthorised Irregular Fruitless and Wasteful Expenditure (UIFW) amounting to R900 million. In total, the municipality had written off R1.1 billion on Thursday. 

Patchapen issued a public apology after the meeting and also withdrew his statement during the council meeting.

The municipality wrote off R203 million in UIFW in relation to the procurement and Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Information Technology directorate. Also, the UIFW related to 80 previously awarded contracts worth R953 million that contravened the local content provisions from January to June 2025, that was written off.

eThekwini speaker Thabani Nyawose was going through the protocol of getting the numbers of those in support and those against when Patchapen could be heard greeting a friend, “How you larney?” and also making the profane remark. In the meeting, a lady can be heard saying, “Oh my God.”

Nyawose called out Patchapen and warned, “We are listening and we have heard everything that you have said, and it is totally out of order and wrong. You have to come to the office of the speaker, soon after the meeting, so that you will be processed accordingly. Withdraw what you have said because you were not aware that we are all listening, including the members of the public. All that you have said is against what the speaker has warned all of you, that if you are not acknowledged, you must switch your microphone off. Your microphone is open, and you are talking to your friend, you are saying things that are totally wrong.”

In a statement released by ADeC after the council meeting, the party stated that the meeting exposed the depths of collusion and manipulation that plague eThekwini Municipality. 

They felt that the meeting was deliberately held on a virtual platform to suppress dissenting voices and prevent councillors from exercising their democratic right to raise objections.

“The virtual system was so tightly controlled that many members of the council were unable to raise their hands or speak. I had no control over being muted or unmuted – the council administration had full control of the Microsoft Teams meeting. I have proof of this. It demonstrates that the system was manipulated to silence dissenting voices,” Patchapen claimed. 

Patchapen regarded wasteful expenditure as another word for theft and corruption, and that ratepayers are expected to write off billions and simply forget about it.

“Instead of holding the guilty accountable, they want to put me in front of the Ethics Committee. What a joke. There are no ethics in this municipality. They attack the one councillor who dared to speak the truth,” he believed. 

Patchapen said he was not proud of the language he used, but at that moment, he could not believe what he was witnessing.

Instead of being written off, this money could have been used to:

• Repair collapsing water infrastructure, ending shortages across our city.
• Fix broken sewer systems that spill into communities, rivers, and beaches.
• Upgrade electricity substations to prevent blackouts crippling homes and businesses.
• Build thousands of houses, replacing shacks where families live in danger of floods and fires.
• Fund clinics, staff, and medicines so people aren’t left waiting hours in under-resourced facilities.
• Invest in job creation programmes for our unemployed youth.
• Repair roads, traffic lights, and street lighting to make communities safer.
• Maintain schools, sports grounds, and community facilities to give our youth alternatives to crime and drugs.

Explaining further why he swore, Patchapen added: 

• Families are expected to survive on SASSA grants.
• Mothers go to bed hungry. 
• Shack fires and floods continue to take lives.
• Crime spirals out of control because young people have no hope.
• Water and electricity outages are treated as normal.

“If leaders can swear loyalty to their parties while betraying the people, then I will swear at corruption and theft. I will be putting a motion forward at the next council sitting, calling for the write-off of all arrears on lights and water owed by residents.

“If billions can be wiped away to cover political mismanagement and corruption, then it is only fair that the struggling people of this city — who are drowning under debt and poverty — are given the same relief,” he said.

zainul.dawood@inl.co.za