(Dis)Honorable mayor swiping official card on luxury clothing and holiday resort

THE ANC is looking for answers from Buffalo City executive mayor, Zukisa Faku, on why she had used her official credit card to pay to entertain party officials at a holiday resort.

The relevation in the Sunday Times at the weekend that the embattled mayor had used her credit card to pay for a number of ANC members at an official municipal lekgotla at Mpekweni resort, although they were not municipal employees, has stung the party’s leadership. The latest revelation comes on top of a Daily Dispatch exposé that Faku had used the municipal credit card on her own personal expenses, including on a sponsored trip to Turkey. The ruling party’s Chief Whip in the Buffalo City council said Faku’s apology over using the credit card indicated she was aware that she had been misusing it. “It doesn’t matter who it is, but if anybody allegedly makes him or herself guilty of corruption, we will investigate it.” Speaking to the Daily Dispatch yesterday after new allegations of embarrassing municipal finance spending had broken over Faku’s head, Du Plessis denied the ruling party was conducting a vendetta against the mayor. “We are merely acting on information we received,” he said.

Last week the Daily Dispatch revealed that Faku had found herself caught up in a political storm after she had bought and paid for personal clothing valued over R10 000 with her mayoral credit card while in Turkey. Yesterday the Sunday Times reported that Faku hosted a four-day municipal lekgotla at the Mpekweni resort near Port Alfred at which 36 invited guests – 13 of whom do not work for the municipality – sipped whisky and dined well. Faku, who last week apologised for the credit card misuse, was not available for comment yesterday. It now seems certain the ruling party will discuss the irregularities and claims of taxpayers’ money misuse at its caucus meeting later this month. And the knives may be out for Faku, who has only been in the top city job for a couple of months.

Du Plessis said the party wanted to discuss details of the misspending with the municipality’s officials. “We want to know everything or anything relating to other similar expenditure.”

Meanwhile the Democratic Alliance’s Annette Reynecke said she had already asked that the Speaker order a full investigation into the use of official credit cards of all municipal officials. Reynecke yesterday said she would now ask that the Mpekweni bash also be investigated.

Yesterday’s report said the controversial 13 outsider guests at Mpekweni included members of the ANC’s Veterans’ Association. Twenty-three official guests, including the entire mayoral committee, met to discuss the city’s priorities and how they would measure whether they had met set targets.

The group of 36 were booked into the resort for three nights, ate dinner, had a braai and were served whisky at the bar. The resort’s website lists prices for bed, breakfast and dinner at R469 to R659 per room, excluding lunch.

Du Plessis said he had warned Faku in advance not to invite the outsider guests but that she had ignored his warning. “This was a strategic meeting, I don’t see why she (Faku) invited people from outside,” he said

Faku had used the municipal credit card on her own personal expenses, including on a sponsored trip to Turkey.

BUFFALO City says Executive Mayor Zukisa Faku’s recent trip abroad, where she splurged on luxury items using a council credit card, was an official trip paid for by “external partners”. In March, Faku spent a week in Turkey followed by a week in Sweden. It was in Turkey that she went on a shopping spree. Buffalo City Municipality spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya this weekend told the Daily Dispatch that the trip to Turkey was by invitation. “It was by an invitation by the City of Leiden, Netherlands, with whom we have a 10-year sister partnership. It was to attend the World Water Forum in Turkey. “We have two projects under the Leiden banner, namely the stormwater project and water and sanitation project, which Leiden Municipality is supporting financially in Duncan Village,” Ngwenya said. The flights and accommodation for the week-long trip were funded by the Dutch sponsor. “The Mayor was also invited by the city of Gävle in Sweden to participate in project activities of the Joint Partnership Steering Committee. This visit followed the visit to Turkey. This trip was a week as well – also funded by external partners,” Ngwenya said. Last week Faku was caught up in a storm over purchases she made for herself on the municipal credit card during the trip to Turkey.

She is supposed to use the credit card only in line with official duties, but the contentious transactions overseas were: On March 17, Faku bought a leather jacket from Elegant Leather Wear for R4157; the next day she bought a clothing item for R875 from the Hotic-Beyoglu store; and the following day an item valued at R4527 was bought from Selv KonfeksSvon. A final piece of clothing was bought from Iamaii Akkurt for R280. For these purchases, Faku faced criticism from the ruling ANC caucus. She said the card purchases had been an oversight, for which she apologised. On her return she said she instructed then acting municipal manager Nonceba Mbali-Majeng to deduct money for the personal purchases from her mayoral allowance, but this had not been done immediately.