Gareth Mnisi, the suspended chief financial officer of the City of Tshwane, was hired in 2023 to help turn around its finance and ensure efficient service delivery.
But during his divorce proceedings, his assets were laid bare in court: he owns cars worth millions and controls trust funds that make him a multimillionaire.
All this on a monthly salary of about R124 000. Mnisi apparently got a top secret security clearance from the State Security Agency, which would have included financial vetting.
Only a broken system would allow an official with so much unexplained wealth to be allowed to run the financial affairs of a metro worth billions of taxpayers money, yet it has happened and continues to happen in other municipalities.
Mnisi was not only the CFO, he was also a member of the city’s bid evaluation committee that had the final say on which applicants got tenders.
The allegations against him are that he rigged the outcomes to ensure certain outcomes.
The pattern that has emerged in Tshwane and Ekurhuleni point to individuals who realised even with the requirements of the Public Finance Management Act of 1999, they could literally hijack the finances of such huge entities by using the power of their positions to direct funds to the chosen cronies – thus receiving a lot of this unexplained wealth themselves with very little, or no, consequences over many years.
This means that even the auditor-general’s outcomes and whatever other checks and balances are in place could not deter them from illicit conduct.
The Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, where Mnisi testified last week, and the investigations task team have been set up to immediately take up cases that have gone hearings.
It has now seen the arrest of top police officials and municipality employees and appears to be just the right combination to curb the rampant looting of government money.
But the commission is only sitting for a limited period – so what is to be done once Justice Mbuyiseli Madlanga is done and his commission is not there to hold top officials to account?
Mnisi is alleged to have amassed unexplained wealth of more than R60 million, having only worked in government in his 36-year-old life.
It is reported that his car inventory was “the talk of the town”, and so is his property portfolio.
In such cases, the corridor whispers among City of Tshwane employees should have easily alerted someone in authority to immediately set investigations in motion and not wait years until the suspected looter leaves their position to cover their tracks.
And this is where this question needs to be answered: “What happens when Justice Madlanga leaves the stage?”
The tragedy of the looting and abuse of power that the commission has unearthed in Ekurhuleni and Tshwane is running deep: officials carried on like there will never be a point in time where they will be held to account.
And it is not only in those municipalities that this unethical behaviour is experienced. The alleged “water tanker mafia” exists in Tshwane and the City of Joburg, too.
This points to a need President Cyril Ramaphosa must address: set up a “permanent Madlanga commission” that would have powers to go and immediately investigate “corridor whispers” reported by whistle-blowers.
These 36-year-old multimillionaires on a government salary are enemies of service delivery.
