The corruption-riddled eThekwini municipality in KwaZulu-Natal is embroiled in another scandal of poor administration after a company supplying printing machine services suspended its account due to unpaid debt.
Konica Minolta suspended the account to force the ANC-EFF-IFP-NFP-run municipality to pay the accumulating debt, and all printing services in the municipality have been abruptly halted.
Although the municipality, KwaZulu-Natal’s only metro, has an annual budget of roughly R60-billion, it is unclear how long the debt has been outstanding.
Nicholas Mkhize, a senior manager for corporate procurement, revealed the suspension of services in an internal memorandum.
Departments asked to pay their debts
The memo was distributed to senior managers, heads of departments, deputy heads of departments, and all deputy city managers (now known as executive directors).
Mkhize stated in the memorandum that to settle the account and restore services, all departments must pay their debts.
“This memo serves to inform all user departments that Konica Minolta has suspended printing services across the municipality,” Mkhize wrote in the memorandum.
“The municipality currently owes the service provider an amount of R7 241 953.05 as of the 30th of June 2025.
“The service provider was engaged, and the matter was discussed. The service provider is not prepared to reactivate services to the city until the full amount is settled.”
Konika turns down R1m offer
The memo reads further: “All departments that have outstanding payments as per the attached reconciliation need to engage with accounts payable and urgently settle in order for services to be reactivated.”
The date for the memo is not clear; however, services had not been restored when this report was compiled.
Sunday World understands that the municipality offered to pay R1-million to have services restored, but Konica Minolta turned down the proposal.
The communications unit of the municipality said it needed 24 hours to respond to media enquiries.
