The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the decision by the Provincial Public Accounts Committee (PPAC) to enlist the services of the Section 100 anti-corruption task team to probe the matter of the R134 million that was erroneously paid to Bojanala Platinum District Municipality by the Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (COGHSTA) earlier this year.
The DA called upon the PPAC to summon the leadership and accounting officer of Bojanala after they failed to pay salaries for the months of September and October, causing employees to embark on disruptive protest action.
The municipality’s monthly salary bill of R18 million puts it above 50% of the budget, which leaves little funds for other services to be rendered.
The rental of all buildings where the municipality is housing its officials has been outstanding for months, software licenses and permits are also not paid.
During the PPAC Committee meeting, it came to light that Department of COGHSTA, with all its internal controls, only managed to locate the payment three weeks after it was transferred. In reaction to this blunder, Council decided to suspend the Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Leslina Ndlovu and Municipal Manager (MM), Pogisho Shikwane.
In their defence, they made the following startling allegations:
- A non-transactional account was opened where the money was saved after it was sent to the municipality;
- The Mayor, Fetsang Molosiwa, knew about the erroneous payment and directed its usage;
- The Mayor had shared the information of the erroneous payment with former mayor of Rustenburg Local Municipality, Matthew Wolmarans, who is now a Member of Parliament; and
- Mr. Wolmarans highlighted that they were approaching the election with a zero budget to operate and therefore indicated that the money should be utilised.
Everything points to the possibility that this payment was indeed not made erroneously and MEC Kegakilwe’s defence that it was a human error does not hold water.
While we welcome Council’s decision for an investigation and the suspension of the CFO and MM, we call upon the Department of COGHSTA and Provincial Treasury to ensure that salaries are paid urgently.
This erroneous payment reeks of criminality; which supports our call for criminal investigations to be instituted for violations of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) and, under the provisions of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act which compels those in positions of authority, and any person who becomes aware of corrupt activities, to report it to law enforcement agencies.
We will be monitoring this matter and will continue the fight to ensure that the livelihoods of the employees of the municipality which were disrupted as a result of maladministration, returns to normal, and the funds illegally utilised be recovered from implicated parties.