Court orders City of Johannesburg to produce KPMG sinking fund documents

The Gauteng South High Court has ordered the City of Johannesburg to provide the Democratic Alliance (DA) with the KPMG report detailing the administration of Joburg's multi-billion rand sinking fund.

Allegations of fraud, money siphoning and mismanagement made by an anonymous whistle-blower prompted the DA to request a report which KPMG produced following an investigation into the fund. However, this report must now be released in full to the DA in terms of the court order and further investigations may need to take place to ensure that it is acted upon.

This High Court order is the culmination of a year-long effort by the DA to obtain this report through the PAIA procedures which the City simply ignored.

Despite advising the DA's attorney that the City did not intend to oppose the court order, the City has now informed us that we will not be given the report directly. Instead, it will be made available through the section 79 Committees, as the City claims that the report is "protected".

The DA does not accept this attempt to deviate from the specific wording of the Order which requires the City to provide the report directly to the DA and makes no provision for it to be provided to the "Section 79 Committees."

This only fuels speculation that the City is attempting to hide information of public interest. The DA will hold the City to the conditions of the court order and take further legal action if necessary. We cannot allow these allegations involving possible large-scale mismanagement of billions of rands worth of public funds go unaccounted.

Statement issued by Mmusi Maimane, DA Leader in the City of Johannesburg, and John Mendelsohn, DA Shadow MMC for the Municipal Public Accounts Committee, August 1 2013

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