ActionSA to report Mpumalanga EFF councillor to Public Protector

19 July 2023

ActionSA has written to the Office of the Public Protector to investigate an EFF councillor who has been accused of extorting R6 million from a contractor that is currently building the Mpumalanga Parliamentary Village.

ActionSA has been reliably informed that the EFF PR councillor, Nyankwabe Thomas Mnisi, attempted to extort money from a contractor and that if the contractor fails to acquiesce to his unlawful request that they will “wake up in a mortuary”.

ActionSA condemns this criminal behaviour with the utmost contempt. This conduct has unfortunately become commonplace in the building of critical infrastructure in Mpumalanga and across the country and often leads to protracted delays in the completion of critical infrastructure that communities so desperately need.

South Africa currently has more than 180 infrastructure and construction projects, estimated to be worth R63 billion and it is unacceptable that many of them have been or will be confronted with extortion from the "construction mafia" across South Africa.

It is especially concerning that, in this case, this extortion seems to be at the hands of a councillor who swore an oath to serve the community and act within the bounds of the law.

As such we will write to the Speaker of this municipality and request that this councillor be referred to the Ethics Committee, sanctioned and sacked as a public representative.

This conduct simply cannot continue unabated. To this end, ActionSA will also pursue criminal charges against said councillor to ensure he never serves any community again.

Issued by Thoko Mashiane, ActionSA Mpumalanga Provincial Chairperson, 19 July 2023