Musa Mbhele, eThekwini city manager, cleared of sexual harassment claims after investigation

Musa Mbhele, the city manager of eThekwini Municipality, has been cleared of sexual harassment charges filed by a municipal executive director in June 2025.

A council meeting held on Monday informed eThekwini councillors of the processes that unfolded during the internal investigation after eThekwini Mayor Cyril Xaba hired independent investigator Advocate Smanga Setheme to probe the allegation of misconduct against Mbhele.

According to Setheme's report, the allegations against Mbhele were found to be “unsubstantiated and lacking credence,” with the recommendation that they be dismissed. IOL has chosen to withhold the identity of the complainant.

Xaba had been given the go-ahead to hire Setheme following an eThekwini council meeting on 3 September 2025. Setheme was given 30 days to conduct his investigation and report his findings.

According to a summarised report presented at the council meeting, Setheme conducted several interviews with those who were present during a meeting where the allegations stemmed from. These included senior municipal officials. 

According to Setheme’s report, Mbhele began June’s meeting by warning municipal officials not to discuss management issues with politicians. The executive director stated that she was not the person responsible for discussing management matters and invited Mbhele to line up all such politicians in the room, and none of them could claim that she had done them any favours or communicated management matters with them. 

“To emphasise her point, she stated, in the meeting, that she was prepared to strip naked to prove her innocence. She submitted that, in response to that, Mbhele allegedly said: “Ngicela ukukubona unqunu (I would like to see you naked) and she felt harassed,” the report stated.

She then made a formal report to Xaba for the appropriate steps to be taken.

“She submitted that three of her colleagues, who were present in the meeting, were unable to confirm her version, and she explained that they were disputing her version because they feared the city manager, who was notorious for dismissing officials,” the report stated.

The director indicated that she was attending psychological sessions as a result of the alleged sexual harassment incident in June 2025, and submitted a letter from her psychologist to corroborate her version; however, the said letter recorded that she started her psychotherapy on 7 May 2025, a month before the alleged incident.

The officials who attended the meeting were unanimous in submitting that the director was the one who spoke about nudity, and introduced the issue during the meeting. 

Mbhele denied the allegation of sexual harassment and labelled it a mischievous and false allegation, which had been subjected to public humiliation and ridicule on social media.

Setheme concluded that it was incomprehensible why the complainant would introduce the issue of nudity while Mbhele was discussing management issues with politicians.

Setheme concluded that the utterances of the complainant, though possibly spontaneous and defensive, were ill-considered and inconsistent with the decorum expected of senior management.

Setheme also found that the complainant's utterances breached norms of professionalism and decorum applicable to municipal executives, and the municipality would be justified in addressing it through corrective, non-punitive interventions.

According to the municipality, Setheme was appointed from an approved panel of attorneys 

Setheme was also regarded as having impeccable credentials and in possession of experience in government operations. As a practising advocate, he also acted as a judge in the Labour Court. Setheme also published a report on sexual harassment in the Public Service Commission.

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