By Palesa Ndinisa
On the 6th of June 2025, executive mayor Nkosindiphile Xhakaza briefed the media about the development of the SAAME building, which is being reconditioned and will serve as the new municipal building and customer care centre. The mayor was joined by Nomadlozi Nkosi, who serves as MMC for Development Planning and Real Estate. The executive mayor further addressed what was deemed to be the “elephant in the room”, which refers to the issue of Dr. Imogen Mashazi, who served as the City Manager of Ekurhuleni for almost three decades.
Mashazi has been placed on special leave pending the 65-year-old retirement. However, it is reported that Mashazi refuses to step down before completing her five year term. The mayor voiced out that Mashazi must retire and pleaded that this issue remain private, as it is an internal matter.
The mayor stretched out that the budget aims to benefit all residents of Ekurhuleni and not just affluent areas as before. “We want to restore service delivery, we want to strengthen financial management, build a capable state and drive infrastructure as well as stimulate the economy. We want to champion clean and ethical governance. We are driving to speed up metro trading services reforms in areas of energy, water and waste. We will have more communication in this area to ensure that the community understands what metro trading reforms mean for them,” added Xhakaza.
The mayor attested that to warrant service delivery, there has to be accountability, and that the council has to rule out negligence, nonperformance and corruption. In addition, he referenced the suspension of Chief Information Officer, Moloko Monyepao, amid his mismanagement of finances regarding the electricity revenue.
Executive mayor, Xhakaza briefly mentioned that the City signed an MOU of integrated cops law enforcement operations in April, which is directed at fighting jurisdictional crime, promoting policing visibility, improving law enforcement and stimulating information sharing and technology integration between government agencies. The mayor subsequently gave credit to KwaThema as it now has its own police station, and Etwatwa will soon have its new police station as well.
“The SAAME project began in the 2017/2018 financial year with the bold vision to turn around Germiston in terms of urban renewal. We want the private sectors to also invest. The intention was to revitalise our office infrastructure and improve workspace, however, there has been mismanagement of irregular expenditure and complete failure to deliver value for money,” said the mayor.
Additionally, Ald. Xhakaza stated that the forensic report of the SAAME building reveals a shocking financial impact of over R272 million in irregularities, unauthorised spending, fruitless and wasteful expenditure and inventory losses. The report states that there has been overpricing of material, misappropriation of funds to contractors with no progress reports, payment of defective work, termination of contracts resulting in unnecessary losses and a loss of nearly R7 million due to weak assertive management, duplication of project management services and payment of contractors without valid contracts. The mayor ensures residents that this matter has been handed over to SAPS and the SIU, making certain that the money lost will be reclaimed.
MMC Nomadlozi Nkosi uttered that the project should be done in the first quarter of September, thus allowing the City to occupy the offices by then. “We saw that the project was a lot for just one contractor, so we gave five more contractors the job. Each contractor is given a designated task that they need to complete. In total, we have seven contractors, hence we’re confident that this project could be done in September, provided these contractors do what is required of them and they deliver the work on time. We are happy to announce that there have not been extra funds directed to this project,” concluded Nkosi.
