ActionSA has today taken eThekwini City Manager Musa Mbhele to the National Prosecuting Authority, submitting a Section 27 affidavit to the Investigating Director over an alleged criminal contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act and failure to act on evidence of corruption in the deeply tainted Phoenix Infill Housing Project.
This follows a damning final report of Special Investigating Unit (SIU) proclamation R9 of 2021, issued in March 2023. This found evidence pointing to the commission of corruption offences and recommended that four entities and seven individuals be referred for blacklisting. Yet despite these findings, eThekwini continues using entities implicated in the SIU investigation in the very same housing project.
When called to account before parliament the Municipal Manager flat out denied existence of the SIU findings and recommendations. This prompted ActionSA to lay criminal charges against him for lying to parliament.
Just last month, the Special Tribunal ordered the contracts relating to the project to be set aside. In its judgment, it found that the municipality “created and perpetuated the irregular arrangement, failed to maintain adequate records, failed to revoke or regularise unlawful arrangements when they were identified, and then failed to participate substantively in proceedings concerning its own procurement failures”.
At the centre of this scandal is the City’s Accounting Officer, the Municipal Manager. Mr Musa Mbhele, who cannot simply wash his hands of what has happened under his watch.
Where there is smoke, there is fire. And when the warnings, investigations, court findings and unanswered questions keep piling up, South Africans deserve answers.
ActionSA has declared corruption Public Enemy Number One. Wherever we uncover corruption, we will act swiftly and decisively to end it. This is precisely why ActionSA has unveiled its Blacklist Corrupt Suppliers Bill,which remains open for public comment until 8 September 2026.
South Africa cannot continue to have a system where corrupt suppliers are exposed, officials are warned, recommendations are ignored, contracts continue and nobody is held accountable.
The people of Phoenix deserve homes, title deeds and dignity instead of corruption, intimidation and broken promises.
ActionSA stands with the people of Phoenix, and we will not stop until those responsible are held accountable.
ActionSA Athol Trollip: Former DA heavyweight, now a key ActionSA leader in the Eastern Cape.
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