By Celani Sikhakhane
- Mavundla told a Durban dialogue that eThekwini refuses to pay contractors, naming a security firm owed R320-million by the city.
- A Durban High Court judge dismissed that same company’s urgent application in February, saying it could not prove a valid contract existed after 2019.
Philani Mavundla says he lost his job as eThekwini’s deputy mayor because he pushed too hard for the city to pay its contractors. He made that claim at a public dialogue in Durban this week, speaking directly to Mayor Cyril Xaba.
But one contractor Mavundla named in his appeal already took the city to court over the same unpaid bill and lost.
Mavundla called out the city by name for failing to pay Siyabonga Kevin Xulu, owner of Solbert Protection Services and Risk Management, which says the city owes it R320-million. He told Xaba the company had run out of funds and that Xulu could not afford to feed his children.
“During my tenure I fought very hard for the city in order to pay contractors on time but in the end the ANC turned against me and I was removed,” Mavundla said.
In February, Judge Murray Pitman of the Durban High Court dismissed Solbert’s urgent application. The judge ruled the company had failed to prove a valid contract existed beyond 2019, and ordered it to pay costs on an attorney-and-client scale, one of the harshest cost orders a court can make.
Mavundla says he is aware of the ruling but believes the matter should have been settled through municipal processes rather than the courts.
eThekwini City Manager Musa Mbele pushed back. He told the News Avenue Podcast that approving a payment of that size without proof would have been impossible.
“If he ever approved the payment, he would have been in jail today,” Mbele said.
Mavundla did not specify which municipal rule or process he believes should have applied to the Solbert invoice. The reporter was unable to obtain that detail before publication.
Pictured above: Former eThekwini Deputy Mayor Philani PG Mavundla speaking at the Xubera Institute for Development and Research dialogue in Durban.
Image source: The City of eThekwini
