Phalatse refuses to retract fraud claims against JPC, ANC
Johannesburg Mayor Mpho Phalatse has refused to retract a claim that city-owned Johannesburg Property Company fraudulently paid millions of rands to a company affiliated to the ANC.
The company had given Phalatse until the end of business on Friday to retract the allegations.
Phalatse claims R27 million was paid to a suspected front company.
Phalatse, who has since opened a criminal case against the ANC and the company, believes the money was used to destabilise the multi-party coalition in Johannesburg.
JPC spokesperson Lucky Sindane says Phalatse's claims have caused damage to the entity and demand a retraction.
"Our attorneys issued a letter to the executive mayor, to retract utterances that she made publicly. So we are demanding that she retract them publicly, failure to do so will have no choice but to approach the high court of South Africa for further action. The deadline is today (Friday).
“The utterances she made badly affected our staff and as an entity, we were brought into a political spat, something that we do not know of and our aim is to deliver services to the residents of Johannesburg and if we have people going around making such utterances is not good. The 27 million that was paid, it was from a court settlement, we were instructed by the court to pay that money, we have documents as evidence that can back up our claim," says Sindane.
But mayoral spokesperson Mabine Seabe says Phalatse will not retract her comments.
“The matters that have been raised are currently under investigation by the City of Johannesburg Group Forensic and Investigation Services, as well as the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation. Further to this, relying on case law, an organ of state which JPC is, cannot sue for defamation. We will allow the law enforcement authorities to investigate this matter and bring it to finality.”
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