‘Ripping off residents’: DA slams R1.2m salary paid to Mkhwanazi

It is unacceptable and outrageous that suspended EMPD deputy chief Julius Mkhwanazi has earned R1.2m from the ratepayers of Ekurhuleni while he sits in a cell awaiting criminal justice, the DA said on Monday.

DA MPL and the party’s Ekurhuleni mayoral candidate Khathutshelo Rasilingwane said Mkhwanazi’s salary since his first arrest last year was revealed in an answer to her question put to infrastructure and Cogta MEC Jacob Mamabolo.

She said Mkhwanazi has been arrested five times, on different charges, and remains in custody as he has not been granted bail.

“Beyond the obvious stench of corruption and criminality, Mkhwanazi is obviously not adding any value to the people of Ekurhuleni, yet he still happily draws his big salary every month,” Rasilingwane said.

She said the deeper scandal was that Ekurhuleni city manager Kagiso Lerutla was implicated too. Lerutla should be “suspending Mkhwanazi or pushing him to resign — but for obvious reasons none of that has happened despite sustained DA pressure,” Rasilingwane said.

“He is ripping off the residents of Ekurhuleni by taking their hard-earned money every month while he is in a cell.”

Rasilingwane said Ekurhuleni deserves a government that cuts out the corruption and ends it.

“People’s money must be spent on people. Not on five-time-arrested officials who languish in jail.”