Lucas Ledwaba
The Mogalakwena Municipality in Limpopo has been instructed to get state security forces to conduct a security risk assessment on its municipal manager after it emerged that Beverly Gunqisa had been threatened by a cabal allegedly in control of the issuing of tenders at the embattled municipality.
Parliament’s CoGTA committee, in the province for an oversight visit, battled for almost two hours to solicit answers from mayor Andrina Matsemela and her executive on the logic behind authorising three months leave for the city’s municipal manager who had been employed only three months before.
Gunqisa was hired in April and mayor Andrina Matsemela signed off on her ‘study leave’ from September to November.
Matsemela, incredulously, didn’t even know what Gunqisa was ‘studying’ for until she sent a SMS to someone who provided the details when pressed by the Committee.
The Committee was later forced to abandon its community meeting following its session with Council because the municipality failed to notify all the relevant stakeholders.
A power failure in the chamber, met by claims of sabotage, capped a day of dramatic and combative exchanges between the Committee and the the council’s executive.
Last month, Mogalakwena was among 12 municipalities that appeared before parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) after consistently receiving disclaimer audit opinions.
Scopa listed a lack of political leadership, inadequate capacity and poor or non-existent systems, human resource challenges, reluctance to cooperate with the auditors, and an absence of consequence management as reasons why the municipality was in such a chaotic state.
The CoGTA committee tried to get answers from a rather hostile and evasive municipal top brass on progress made since the Scopa meeting, but with little success.
Mogalakwena is sitting on a R2,6bn bill of irregular, unauthorised and wasteful expenditure accumulated over three financial years, a massive amount for a municipality of Mogalakwena’s size.
The municipality is made up of 172 villages, three townships and the town of Mokopane which is plagued by severe water shortages.
The municipality says its revenue collection stands at 73%. This includes revenue collection from the Mogalakwena Platinum Mine, the biggest open cast platinum mine in the world.
In July, the municipality was rocked by controversy following the murder of Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) chairperson Vaaltyn Kekana and ANC Youth League leader Ralph Kanyane.
Kekana was reportedly set to table a report detailing corruption amounting to hundreds of millions of rands before he was murdered. The killers remain at large. The CoGTA committee pushed hard for answers on Kekana’s murder.
CoGTA Committee member Mohammed Hoosen pointed to a “potential collusion between officials, politicians or whoever with regards to killing of assassination of MPAC chairperson [Kekana]”.
Hoosen asked mayor Matsemela to contact SAPS crime intelligence to conduct a threat analysis on Gunqisa “to ensure she doesn’t end up like Kekana.”
Matsemela, while noting the Committee’s concern, reacted negatively to Hoosen’s suggestion, however.
But Committee Chair Muthambi was adamant, and got the mayor to commit, albeit grudgingly, to the suggestion.
Hoosen probed why there were no consequences for the R2,6bn irregular expenditure and wanted to know why none of the council members had taken any action against those implicated.
“There seems to be no consequences for those implicated,” Hoosen remarked.
“Who murdered the person [Kekana]? What was happening in this municipality? This person that was murdered, we understand that [police] investigation is underway, but what was happening?” demanded another committee member.
Who sent the invites? Not me, Did you?
The CoGTA Committee was forced to abandon its community meeting, following it session with Council because the municipality failed to notify all the relevant stakeholders.
The Committee was scheduled to hear submissions from community, civic, religious and traditional leaders after its engagement with the council. However, this fell through after it emerged that the municipality failed
to send invitations to relevant bodies.
The stakeholders who made it into the chamber complained to the Committee that they had been intimidated and prevented from entering the chamber by security guards.
And to round off the drama, a power failure in the chamber just before the start of the scheduled community meeting fuelled accusations of sabotage.
Muthambi and her committee engaged informally with those stakeholders in attendance, debating whether the meeting should proceed despite the absence of other stakeholders.
“This is clearly sabotage. We are suspending this meeting because we can’t sit here and listen to one side while the other is not here,” Muthambi charged in the darkened chamber illuminated by cell phone torches and TV cameras.
Tlou Sasa of the SA National Civic Organisation (SANCO) in Mogalakwena said he only got to know about the meeting through interactions on the streets. He said he had made his way to the council chamber upon hearing the news but was harassed by security.
Young Communist League of SA district secretary for the Govan Mbeki region said she was threatened with violence by security guards when she made her way to the chamber after learning of the meeting which
was already underway.
She said they wanted to tell the Committee that residents of the municipality are sick and tired because of poor service delivery.
Nancy Ramohlale of the Inter-Denominational Churches said two of her comrades were prevented from attending the meeting by security guards. She too learnt of the meeting late.
Muthambi assuaged the angry stakeholders, promising to reschedule for a later stage to ensure that all stakeholders are afforded an opportunity to put their views forward.
