Category Archives: Carvin Goldstone

Independent on Saturday: Sutcliffe pay boost up to R1.7m a year

http://www.independentonsaturday.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5398074

Sutcliffe pay boost up to R1.7m a year

March 20, 2010 Edition 1

CARVIN GOLDSTONE

DURBAN’S ratepayers are paying dearly for the “skills” of its senior municipal officials, whose total packages have been pumped up considerably.

eThekwini city manager Mike Sutcliffe’s total annual package is R1 738 000, which equates to a whopping R144 833 a month, according to the city’s latest annual report at the end of the 2008/09 financial year.

Sutcliffe’s annual basic salary of R1 253 000 is boosted with a R102 000 car allowance and a R382 000 “market” or skills allowance. His previous total package was R1 253 000.

City treasurer Krish Kumar is hot on his heels with a total package of R1 580 000, giving him R121 166 monthly and making him the second highest earner in the city. His basic remuneration is R875 000 but he receives a R280 000 car allowance and an additional R242 000 as a market allowance. On top of that Kumar receives R183 000 as a contribution to his UIF, Medical Aid and Pension Fund.

His previous package was R1 238 000.

Deputy city manager for governance Sipho Cele earns a total package of R1 454 000 which includes a R280 000 car allowance and a R121 000 market allowance. His previous package was R1 402 000 and included a R171 000 performance bonus.

The issue of market or skills allowance is proving hugely controversial in eThekwini Municipality after the finding of an internal municipal document that more than 50 senior officials received market allowances or bonuses.

Kumar has disputed the unofficial document and said the figures quoted were incorrect.

He said the Annual Report figures, where all salary details of the city manager and all the managers that report directly to him were outlined, were the correct disclosures.

The city is compelled by law to release the salary details of the city’s top earners who are Section 57 employees – municipal managers and managers directly accountable to municipal managers.

Kumar said a report has been compiled and would be submitted to the executive committee, explaining the market allowances and how they were determined.

He said the report to exco also covered how salaries were determined but said salaries for the city manager and Section 57 employees were well below the (private) market salaries.

eThekwini Mayor Obed Mlaba walked off with a cool R959 000, up from R807 000 for the previous financial year.

Deputy Mayor Logie Naidoo earned R885 000 last year (previously R745 000) and Municipal Speaker James Nxumalo fell just short of the R1 million mark, pocketing R916 000 last year (R503 000).

While the mayor and deputy mayor do not receive car allowances they have the use of council-owned vehicles for official duties and the mayor has three full-time bodyguards and the deputy mayor has two full-time bodyguards.

Independent on Saturday: Houses-for-votes saga deepens

http://www.tios.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4374356

April 26, 2008 Edition 1

CARVIN GOLDSTONE

The houses-for-votes saga in Durban took another turn yesterday after a report in an ANC Chatsworth branch newsletter called for people who did not support the ANC to be left out when the allocation of new houses takes place.

The article surfaced not long after members of the ruling party denied any link to adverts which assured people that if they voted for the ANC in an upcoming by-election they would be given houses.

The article, which appears in the latest edition of the ANC Chatsworth branch’s official newsletter, The Khulisa Khronicle, suggests that ANC senior members knew very well about the houses-for-votes stance.

The branch is chaired by ANC Chatsworth chairman Visvin Reddy who confirmed to The Independent on Saturday yesterday that the newsletter was definitely theirs.

Reddy refused to comment on the article, but said he should rather be quoted from the newsletter.

The article quotes Reddy saying “those who did not support the ANC should not be allocated these houses”.

In the article ANC members are said to have told party members that 3 500 houses were to be built in Chatsworth.

DA leader in eThekwini John Steenhuisen said the article undermines the recent denials by ANC office bearers that the ANC was involved in such activities.

“This article confirms statements made in a recent SMS and newspaper adverts placed by the ANC in Chatsworth papers. The gist of all these is that the council will only deliver houses and services to ANC members in Chatsworth,” said Steenhuisen.

Independent on Saturday: ”Where is the R10-billion?’

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=3045&art_id=vn20070929085453605C905431

September 29 2007 at 12:13PM

Chaos erupted in the Durban suburb of Sydenham after a peaceful housing protest turned ugly as police dispersed a large crowd using water cannons, rubber bullets and baton charges on Friday.

Fifteen people, including academics Fazel Khan and Richard Pitthouse, were arrested and charged with public violence.

Police baton-charged the estimated 1 000 protesters on the command of Sydenham Police Station Commissioner Superintendent Glen Nayager after they refused to disperse when their demand to hand over their memorandum to Mayor Obed Mlaba was not met.

The protesters said the march was over the failure of Mlaba and the eThekwini council to provide housing to Durban’s poor and homeless.

On Friday, homeless people took to the streets with banners asking “Where is the R10-billion?” that Mlaba promised for a housing project.

After marching a few kilometres from their homes in Kennedy Road to the eThekwini Municipal Offices in Sydenham where the group had hoped to meet Mlaba, the group was informed that the mayor was not coming and instead an official from the eThekwini Municipality was on hand to collect their memorandum of demands.

Leader of Abahlali baseMjondolo, the shackdwellers movement, S’bu Zikode, said the mayor’s snub was a sign of disrespect and disregard.

He told protesters that they would never allow this, and said the mayor had failed to respect the needs and call of the poor.

The people refused to move until Mlaba honoured their protest, but police called in the water cannon and decided to disperse the group using force.

Police baton-charged the group and without warning began firing the water cannon and rubber bullets.

A number of the protesters, including women and children, were injured.

The police arrested a number of protesters and took them to Sydenham Police Station.

Mnikelo Ndabankulu, who was one of the march organisers, said he went to visit those who were arrested and was himself arrested.

Speaking from inside the police cell, Ndabankulu said they were charged with public violence and were being refused bail.

The protesters were demanding that Mlaba accept the memorandum because almost two years ago he “paraded” a piece of land near Gateway shopping centre before the media and said the city would build a R10-billion housing project called the Phoenix East Integrated Housing Development Project for Durban’s homeless.

Mlaba’s announcement was made days after a similar protest took place in Durban by the same group of people.

But a day after the announcement Moreland Development, which owned the land that Mlaba had said was for the housing project, released a statement saying it was “only involved in preliminary discussions with the eThekwini Municipality regarding plans for the future development of Cornubia”, and that the mayor had caused a misunderstanding about the housing project which was not a “done deal”.

Mlaba said he was not aware of a legal march taking place, but he did not see anything wrong with someone else receiving the memorandum.

“If it was legal I was not aware of it,” he said.

Mlaba said there was no imperative that any specific person had to receive a memorandum.

He said anyone could receive the memorandum, which was just a document raising awareness about something.

Mlaba said it was not a court order where they could demand his presence and said they should have handed the memorandum to the person who had come to receive it.

On the concerns of the protesters, Mlaba said that one of the problems with the housing backlog was that “as we build 10 000 homes there are another 10 000 pushed into the city because people are making money as shack lords and we cannot have that”.

With regards to the R10-billion housing project, that he announced almost two years ago, Mlaba said the project was still going to go ahead, but “no one said it would happen on Su

Accused residents ‘on hunger strike’

Available at
http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=3767547

April 05, 2007 Edition 1

MEMBERS of the Kennedy Road informal settlement who are being held at Westville Prison on charges of murder have apparently gone on a hunger strike in an attempt to draw attention to their case.

This is according to residents of the settlement, who have been visiting the five awaiting-trial prisoners. However, the Correctional Services Department has been unable to confirm the hunger strike.

The five inmates were arrested in connection with the death of Mzwakhe Sithole, an Ntuzuma man who died while in police custody.

On February 15, Sithole had allegedly attacked and robbed Kennedy Road resident Thina Khanyile in Umgeni Road.

Residents of the settlement apparently caught and beat up Sithole.

Police Supt Vincent Mdunge said that Sydenham police had rescued Sithole, who had been “seriously assaulted”.

“Because of the seriousness of the situation, he was taken through to the police station for safety reasons,” he said.

Sithole allegedly had later tried to escape from the police station, but had collapsed just outside.
Click here!

Mdunge said he did not consider Sithole’s death a death in custody and denied that police had also beaten him up.

After Sithole died, five people whom police believed were involved in his assault were arrested and charged with murder.

They are now apparently on a hunger strike.

Kennedy Road development committee member Gerald Mdlalose said the five residents in jail had been on a hunger strike since Sunday because they were unhappy with their arrests. “The investigating officer in this case does not have enough evidence that they were involved in this murder.

“The man was punished and handed over to police, and the police told the people that the man had passed away,” he said.

The committee is demanding a neutral investigation into Sithole’s death that would probe the Sydenham Police and Kennedy Road residents without bias.

Correctional Services Department spokesman Manelisi Wolela could not confirm the hunger strike claim yesterday.

eThekwini Municipality Finally Admits the Obvious – that It’s ‘Target’ of ‘Clearing the Slums’ by 2010 is Impossible

Mercury, page 5, March 6, 2007

‘Building 2.4m Units By 2014 Will Need a Miracle’

HOUSING TARGET IS UNREALISTIC, SAY OFFICIALS

Carvin Goldstone

South Africa would have to build 2.4 million houses – or about 30 000 started homes a month – if it wanted to complete its low-cost housingFprogramme by the target date of 2014. However government officials are now admitting that this target is unrealistic.

S’bu Gumede, Chariman of the eThekwini Municipality’s housing subcommittee, said yesterday that South Africa was not doing enough to meet its goal of housing the country’s poorer communities by 2014.

He told politicians and officials at a housing subcommittee meeting that the city Housing Department might need to build twice as many houses every year if it planned to meet its goal in the next seven years. Continue reading