EFF statement on the fraud and corruption charged City Manager of Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Noxolo Nqwazi’s continued tenure in office

1 June 2023

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) calls for the immediate resignation of the City Manager of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality (NMB), on the basis of the findings against her by the Special Investigative Unit (SIU) of corruption and fraud and her subsequent arrest by the Hawks.

According to the SIU report into irregular procurement during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Ms Nqwazi in her capacity as the Acting City Manager at the time colluded with a service provider from outside of the Eastern Cape to provide 2000 toilets to informal settlements, under the pretense of emergency procurement as provided by the emergency procurement regulations.

Shockingly, only 200 of the toilets which were procured for an amount of R24.6 million were delivered.

Subsequent to the findings of the SIU, she and her accomplices were charged and arrested by the Hawks in September 2022. As things stand, the City Manager of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is out on bail for fraud and corruption yet continues to be an accounting officer who presides over critical decisions which pertain to the budget of the municipality.

The EFF has since the 30th of May 2023 occupied the positions of MMC for Infrastructure and Engineering and the Electricity and Energy in the NMB Mayoral Committees, and as such now constitutes government in the Metro.

As an organisation that promotes clean governance, it is intolerable that an individual of such a nature can continue being the accounting officer where the EFF governs.

Ms. Nqwazi has not only been identified as a corrupt element in the municipality by the SIU and the Hawks, but most recently by the office of the Public Protector in the Eastern Cape, which has equally questioned the council as to why the City Manager has not at the very least been suspended on the basis of the accusations against her of corruption.

Her continued presence allows her to corrupt and compromise witnesses against her which serve in the council, but also poses the risk of her continuing with the corruption that the Hawks has charged her with.

Since the restructuring of coalition agreements in numerous municipalities in the last few months, the EFF has identified that there is a tendency in municipalities of bureaucrats undermining the democratic mandate given to councillors in council. One such act of undermining democracy is bureaucrats not being held accountable in their role in corruption in Local Municipalities.

There will therefore be no peaceful council in the NMB until such a point that Ms Noxolo Nqwazi is removed as the City Manager.

The people of South Africa must begin to appreciate the fact that there needs to be a complete overhaul of governance in Local Municipalities even at the level of bureaucracies, in order to effectively rid the sphere of crippling corruption

Issued by Sinawo Thambo, National Spokesperson, EFF, 1 June 2023