Love Me Tender

I’ve already written about the ongoing deterioration of Johannesburg twice this year, but, like your favourite Golden Oldies radio station, the hits just keep on coming.
The latest in the apparent laundry list of “you can’t make this up” issues is the response by Johannesburg city spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane when challenged on the awarding of massive transport contracts (valued at R972 million) to politically connected families.

“The metro government sees no problem and will not investigate,” he said.
This response came despite multiple concerns from the Auditor General, civic watchdogs, and political parties.

The issue concerns six contracts given in 2023 for the extension of the BRT/Rea Vaya bus system. They were all awarded to the families of city councillors and officials.
The extension project is already eight years behind schedule, and its final deadline for the end of last year was also missed.

Yet Modingoane remains resolute. “There is no regulatory provision that prohibits the Municipality to award contracts to the category of people in question (spouse, child or parent of a person in service of state either actively or in the past twelve months),” he said. “Therefore, the question whether the City failed in oversight and due diligence is misplaced.”
He appears to be the only one with this opinion.

Click the link to read the full article - https://lnkd.in/dpAi-pr4