Sutcliffe vows to sue left, right and centre

Former city manager Michael Sutcliffe has thrown down the gauntlet to the eThekwini executive committee, saying the handling of the Manase forensic investigation report has damaged his reputation and prospects of further employment.

Sutcliffe was responding to an announcement by the municipality two weeks ago that city manager Sibusiso Sithole would file a criminal complaint against him and recover from him R1.1 million lost by the city.

This came after the council concluded Sutcliffe had failed to report fraud and corruption to law enforcement agencies and had not taken “reasonable” action to prevent irregular expenditure. Sutcliffe reported the activities two years after the events.

A summary of the Manase report was released last month after a lengthy probe into allegations of fraud, corruption and maladministration at eThekwini.

The probe followed an investigation by auditors Ngubane and Co, who made similar findings in 2010.

Sutcliffe said his attorney had been requesting a copy of the Manase report for about three weeks, and only after threats to approach the high court had a copy (without annexures) been made available.

He was still trying to get a full copy, with annexures.

Sutcliffe said allegations that he was guilty of derogation of his duties and, as a result, the city would seek to recover R1.1m from him and to have him prosecuted, were unfounded.

“It is important to clearly indicate that the Manase forensic investigation does not contain a recommendation that I be prosecuted. Nor does it suggest or advocate that the monies allegedly lost to the municipality should be recovered from me personally.”

He said the municipality’s resolution cited the wrong act.

“However, municipal manager Sibusiso Sithole has explicitly made claims in the media that council has mandated him to lay charges against me and claim monies back from me,” he said.

Sutcliffe said he had sent a lengthy statement to Nxumalo and had asked that all councillors be given a copy. The statement would be made public in “due course”.

Sutcliffe said he and housing head Cogi Pather had never been asked by the Manase investigators to respond to the claims made in the Ngubane report, and no evidence had been presented to him of a R1.1m loss.

He said he and his family had suffered greatly from the way the matter had been dealt with, and that his prospects of further employment had been hurt by the “unsubstantiated, untruthful and incorrect allegations”.

“I have therefore started proceedings to claim significant damages against individuals, spheres of government and the media and to demand an unqualified apology be made to me,” he said.

Sutcliffe added it was clear some matters brought to the Manase investigating team’s attention had not been included in the report.

Municipal spokesman Thabo Mofokeng said the municipality would not respond to Sutcliffe’s comments now.

The MF’s Patrick Pillay said Sutcliffe was within his rights to respond to allegations levelled against him.

DA caucus leader Tex Collins agreed, adding that the focus had been on officials, with scant regard to the politicians. “Were the report to be released in its entirety, it would expose much political dirt as to make life most uncomfortable for a great number of councillors.”

The DA has called for the complete report to be released. - The Mercury

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