The Uphongolo local municipality, located along the South African-Eswatini border in northern KwaZulu-Natal, has opted to keep mum on allegations that its chief financial officer (CFO) lied to a panel in order to get the top job.
According to a whistleblower report seen by the Sunday World, the CFO changed from being Khulekani Thusi to Khulekani Ngcobo to allegedly hide his dark past as the CFO of the Amajuba district municipality anchored in Newcastle.
The whistleblower claimed that the culprit assumed the Ngcobo, which is his mother’s maiden name.
In the report, which was sent to the IFP-run (Inkatha Freedom Party) municipality, Ngcobo changed his surname at the Department of Home Affairs in November 2021. He also did the same for his children.
Dark past
“He did that to conceal his past so that any online search would not link him back to the Amajuba scandal, where he was fired for embezzling funds. He tried to challenge the sacking at the bargaining council and failed, so his sacking was upheld.
“Then he applied for the current position in Uphongolo. When he was asked why he left Amajuba, he claimed that it was because of family responsibility, and he was hired. It is concerning that the municipality did not check with Amajuba, and when this information was brought to their attention, they did not act,” an insider within the municipality said.
Ngcobo was fired for allegedly signing off on a payment of R2-million for work that had not been done in 2014, the Mail & Guardian reported in 2018. He later got a job at the Big Five Hlabisa local municipality, which is also run by the IFP.
At the time, he was using the Thusi surname.
In May this year, Ngcobo came under fire after it was widely reported in the media that he approved payment of a sum of R145 000 for the purchase three laptops. This put the figure of R48,550 on each laptop.
Neither the municipality nor Ngcobo responded when they were asked about these allegations, despite being given almost a month to formulate a response.
