ANC demands investigation after KZN 'mayor' exposed in audio leak

A KwaZulu-Natal mayor can allegedly be heard in an audio clip demanding to be consulted on hiring staff and awarding contracts, and making sexually explicit comments to a woman official.

The man, allegedly Abaqulusi mayor Mncedisi Maphisa of the IFP, is heard — along with banging noises on tables — in what seems to be a meeting with senior officials. In the clip, the man appears to be lamenting the employment of people without his involvement and tenders allegedly awarded without his knowledge. 

“People get hired without me being consulted, I want us to close that chapter because if that happens again it will be inhumane if I can interrogate you and ask you who gave you a go-ahead to do that because you have already hired them. 

“Here service providers are hired without consultation with the mayor's office ... Here everything happens without consultation with me and that is not a secret,” the man says. 

The five-minute audio is mostly of one person speaking and shutting down others' attempts to comment.

The man is also allegedly heard threatening to fire a person.

“I want [the person] gone from this municipality by the end of this week. I know there might be reasoning that you don't terminate people. You must find loopholes. If [she] doesn't leave I will remove [her] myself,” he says.

When another man, assumed to be an official, attempts to intercede, the man appears to turn his attention to a female official, whom he refers to as “the only woman here”, and says he is the “only bull with testicles”. 

“I am the only bull in the kraal and therefore the only man with authority to sleep with female municipal workers ... If there is anyone in this kraal who thinks they can be a bull, you must castrate me,” the man in the audio clip says.