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The Department of Development Planning has suspended three officials pending further investigation for refusing to co-operate with the City’s Group Risk and Assurance Services (GRAS) as part of the audits being conducted following the storms which ravaged parts of the City on 30 December 2018.
Following the storms, I committed to launch an investigation through which we would determine whether construction at the worst affected homes was up to the appropriate standard.
GRAS was mandated to audit all processes followed for the construction of new houses; and the Department of Development Planning’s Building Development Management Unit were one of the departments being audited as part of this process.
Unfortunately, a few seemingly corrupt officials from the Department in Region D were refusing to provide the necessary files with information about damaged houses to the auditors.
They were subsequently suspended.
The preliminary report as part of the ongoing investigation indicates that irregular building approvals, missing files for various developments, a complete breakdown of governance processes and maladministration took place while the suspended officials were in office.
I have been assured that the Department is reviewing standard operation procedures for Building Development Management (BDM), filing within regions, and strengthening controls for greater accountability and transparency.
As we near the conclusion of this investigation, I would like to thank the residents of those affected communities for their support and continued patience in this matter.
I would like to assure residents that we take this matter seriously and will do all that is within our power to ensure that there is appropriate consequence management for those implicated by the final report.
Cllr Herman Mashaba
Executive Mayor
City of Joburg
Media queries:
Luyanda Mfeka
Director: Mayoral Communications
Office of the Executive Mayor
Cell: 076 171 5978
Email: luyandam@joburg.org.za
