Fraud-accused Zandile Gumede's lawyer continued grilling a senior Durban Solid Waste (DSW) official in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court in Durban on Wednesday.

He questioned the official's role and responsibilities while the eThekwini Municipality was plagued by alleged corruption and racketeering.

Advocate Jay Naidoo for Gumede continued his cross-examination of the senior official who previously stated much of his powers were taken away by the former head of special projects at DSW, Robert Abbu, who was previously his subordinate.

Much of Naidoo's questioning has thus far centred around the senior official and his role before and during the work of four accused contractors in the corruption trial.

Gumede and her co-accused are in the dock for allegedly syphoning more than R320-million worth of public funds from the DSW unit.

On Wednesday, Naidoo continued with questions that sought to establish timelines leading to accused contractors commencing refuse removal for DSW and eThekwini in the first months of 2018.

The court previously heard the City had not worked through more than 1 000 tenders and that by December 2017, there were protests, burning of DSW trucks, illegal dumping and internal city refuse workers being threatened by communities, particularly in Umlazi.

Abbu the hard worker

Naidoo asserted Abbu was a hardworking employee who tried to plan ahead for contracts to be ready in December of 2017.

He said Abbu suggested a service-level plan on 3 November 2017, ahead of December and the busy festive period.

Naidoo stated Abbu's plan came in the same period where section 36 approvals were sought for contracts.

Section 36 bypasses ordinary tender appointing processes in the case of an emergency, making it easier to appoint contractors.

Many of the accused companies were appointed at some stage using this tender clause.   

Naidoo asked the senior official why he had omitted Abbu's service level plan in his evidence-in-chief.

The official responded, "I can't offhand think of a reason."

Naidoo also stated the senior official and Abbu were in communication during the tumultuous period.

The senior official previously stated whenever he would ask his subordinate, Abbu, about issues with the now-accused contractors, he would tell him: "I was instructed by city hall."

Abbu was promoted as head of special projects shortly before the appointment of the alleged corrupt contractors, with the senior official repeatedly testifying that after the promotion, he had minimal interactions with Abbu.

Naidoo said there was however an engagement between Abbu and the senior official after the promotion.

He added a 3 November 2017 memo from Abbu had him signed off as the deputy head of strategic new developments, his title before he was made head of special projects.

"This is a date after Abbu was appointed to special projects. So, there is an engagement between Abbu and yourself."

However, the senior official said he never received any memo from Abbu on 3 November 2017.

"I never received this memo from the city manager or anyone else. I received communication about this memo from my superior [and not directly from Abbu]."

'I had to step in'

The senior official testified Abbu allegedly abandoned his work and he had to make internal provisions for refuse collection in December 2017.

He said by 8 March 2018, he had to "take control" of refuse collection because "Abbu was not around".

"I was told by my superior to take charge, so I did. Because this was a special project handled by Abbu, it would have been proper for him to continue this process.

"Unfortunately, because it was refuse removal in townships in particular, I had to step in."

The trial continues on Thursday.