Durban — While eThekwini Municipality was busy processing the appointment of the independent investigator to probe the allegations of fake qualifications bedevilling the city, the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) said it would urgently summon the agency that was contracted to verify employees’ qualifications.
A Pretoria-based agency, Managed Integrity Evaluations, has been independently verifying candidates before they are employed by the city for several years now.
MPAC chairperson Thami Xuma told the Daily News that his committee was not aware that there was an agency that was contracted to do the verification.
Xuma was reacting to mayor Mxolisi Kaunda’s announcement last week that an independent body would be appointed to investigate whether deputy city manager for Human Capital, Kim Makhathini, was illegally employed after allegations surfaced that she had fake qualifications at the time she was employed as the head of the same unit in 2014.
The MPAC chairperson said it was strange that the city would incur extra costs in paying the independent investigator while it was continuing to pay Managed Integrity Evaluations which was currently doing the same work for the municipality. He added that he did not see the need for a further probe into Makhathini’s qualifications given that the agency had done the verification before she was hired, and recommended that her documents were authentic.
A report by the agency, which was seen by the paper and was conducted in 2020 before Makhathini’s promotion to the deputy city manager’s position, revealed that she obtained a diploma at Damelin. In its auto-reply, the agency said it would respond within 24 hours to the paper’s inquiry.
“As our core business as the MPAC is to safeguard taxpayers’ money against wasteful expenditure, we felt we must summon the agency.
“We want the agency to explain how it conducts its work now that the CIIU found that Makhathini’s qualifications were fake, whereas in its verification it found that they were genuine.
“On top of that, the agency must tell us whether it still stands by its findings that Makhathini possesses authentic qualifications.
On the other hand, a legal showdown was said to be looming between the city and Makhathini who, according to her close sources, has vowed to challenge her imminent suspension in court.
She had up until today (Friday) to provide reasons why she should not be suspended pending the completion of the independent investigator that the city intends to appoint.
According to a source in the municipality, Makhathini did not have a problem co-operating with the investigation, but first wanted the city to provide her with its Integrity and Investigations Unit report. The source further said that she insisted that her qualifications were authentic, as was verified by the independent agency hired by the city.
The source claimed that there might be a witch hunt against Makhathini, as her Damelin Diploma was never a requirement in the advertisement for the post – the requirement was only the degree.
The verification agency had not responded to the questions that were sent by the paper to it on May 18, despite being reminded on Thursday they still had not responded.
Makhathini declined to comment on the matter.
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