180917 A man holds South African Rands in his hands. Picture: Karen Sandison/ANA 4
A Durban businessman has approached the Office of the President, complaining about not being paid by the eThekwini Municipality for his security services amounting to more that R4 million.
Siyabonga Xulu, Chief Executive Officer of Solbeth Protection and Risk Management has claimed that his requests for payment has been ignored by municipal officials, especially City Manager Musa Mbhele.
Xulu said he had approached a number of officials including those in the portfolio committees, provincial treasury, and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta).
His latest effort was the call to the Office of the President.
“There is no effort that I will spare in order to get money for which I have worked. It is a question of principle and justice, that is all,” said Xulu.
He claimed that he has provided security services to the city since the term of former city Sipho Nzuza as city manager.
Xulu said he had helped in ensuring that the city’s top information was protected from any possible theft from the database, especially in the city manager’s office.
He said part of the work provided by his company was ensuring that the city manager’s office was free from any bugs that could be used to spy on the city’s activities. It included the monitoring and evaluation of all mobile, audio and data equipment to ascertain the identity of anonymous callers and conducting proper debugging and sweeping of the city’s top office.
He said he also flagged and identified risks within the municipality’s system and daily reported firewall encryption.
Xulu said his company was owed R413 161 463 million plus R62 815 858 in interest dating back to 2019.
He said he had been demanding payment for the services for months and insisted that, if it was not for his other business interests, he would have gone bankrupt by now because of the municipality’s refusal to pay him his dues.
Xulu produced a number of correspondences between himself and city officials, including the city manager.
In a letter addressed to eThekwini Mayor Cyril Xaba, and copied to Executive Committee members and Cogta MEC which was dated September 19, Xulu referred to an agreement entered into between his company and the municipality.
In addition to this, he expressed his disappointment over the apparent refusal by the city to pay, and appealed for the matter to be resolved swiftly and amicably.
In the letter to Xaba he pointed out how had received numerous requests from media outlets for interviews over the matter.
“As an ethical service provider, it is our wish to resolve this matter amicably without any further exposure than the one we have been exposed to which is why I still have hope that we can still solve this matter in the absence of the media to protect the eligibility between eThekwini Municipality and Solbeth Protection and Risk Management,” read Xulu’s letter.
In another correspondence dated October 18, a senior Cogta official, Rajesh Ranjith acknowledge Xulu’s complaint.
“Please note that, as per previous communication, Provincial Treasury is looking at your matter. I anticipate that after they have done their investigations they would revert to you,” read the response.
Xulu accused the municipality of delaying tactics, saying that when he undertook legal action against the municipality, he was advised that the city’s legal representative was away.
“Now tell me how is it possible that a municipality as big as eThekwini can cite that as the reason for not continuing with the court process. Smaller municipalities have lawyers that attend to legal matters of their councils. That is why I believe that this is just another method of trying to frustrate me. Unfortunately, it will not work,” he said.
Despite the setbacks, Xulu said he was optimistic about getting paid even though it has been a four and a half -year pursuit for him.
Responding to Xulu’s allegations, municipal spokesperson Gugu Sisilana cited a court process that was underway on the matter.
“As a matter of principle and respect for the judicial processes, the municipality does not litigate through the media and will not comment on the case because the matter is pending in court,” she said.
Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said he was unable to determine whether such a correspondence had been sent to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office, but undertook to verify the information.