Daily Archives: January 26, 2021

DA in the Greater Taung Municipality calls for the suspension of the Municipal Manager, CFO

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Picture: Greater Taung Local Municipal Manager, Katlego Gabanakgosi

By BAKANG MOKOTO

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Greater Taung Local Municipality calls for the suspension of the municipal manager, Katlego Gabanakgosi, and the Chief Financial Officer, Victor Tshwene.

The DA caucus leader, Lesego Maila said for the past two years, the municipality has failed to submit its Annual Financial Statement (AFS) as required by Section 126(1)(a) of the Municipal Finance Management Act of 2003.

“During a virtual Special Council meeting, the municipality presented a report claiming that the delay was due to Covid-19 as the finance staff was working remotely and were unable to consolidate all relevant financial supporting documents.

“However, in the 2018/2019 financial year, South Africa had not yet reported any cases of Covid-19 and yet in the same report, there was no financial statements or information submitted,” Maila said.

She further said the report that was presented, shows that the municipality is not taking responsibility for the financial mismanagement and their failure to comply with their statutory obligations. 

Maila added that the National Treasury even extended the deadline for the AFS to be submitted and still the municipality failed to meet that deadline.

“During the council meeting, the DA recommended that a forensic investigation be conducted as the AFS was not submitted because there wasn’t enough financial information and supporting documents submitted.

“The lack of information points to irregularities by the Accounting Officers. We requested that the AG report on failed submission of the annual financial statements be made available and tabled in council,” she said.

Maila also alleged that the municipal mayor, Kgosi Nnyoko Motlhabane failed to exercise his oversight role over the financial management of the municipality, therefore he must be held responsible for his failure.

“We have also requested an audit into the money spent on overtime by all financial staff of the municipality, should any irregularities be found, the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) must ensure that the money is recovered since then has been a failure in performing duties.

“The DA also recommended that the Municipal Manager and the Chief Financial Officer be suspended pending said processes. We made these recommendations, however, the Speaker Ebuseng Tladi did not allow for the secondment to take place, rendering council useless in exercising its duties,” she said.

However, the Greater Taung Local Municipal Manager, Katlego Gabanakgosi refuted Maila’s claims and rendered them absurd. Gananakgosi said the delays were caused by various reasons including the collapsed of the Financial Management System that affected four other municipalities in the province.

“As the municipality, we thrive on transparency and accountability, in particular, I as the accounting officer. I will just give a background that 2018/19 financial year annual statements have been submitted to the Office of the Auditor-General (AG) around 8 January 2020. Yes, they were late because, under normal circumstances, AFS is supposed to be submitted within 60 days at the end of the financial year.

“This means we were supposed to submit our 2018/19 AFS in August 2019. However, we could not do that because of the problems we had with the Financial Management System (FMS). Other four municipalities also failed to submit their AFS due to the same challenges,” he said.

Gabanakgosi ‘hold no punches’ and said the same council including the DA had walked the path with them as they have explained to them the reasons for late submissions. He said mostly, their challenges were caused by the disintegration of the system.

“Even though our system crashed, we managed to submit in January 2020. The only unfortunate part was that a month towards the AG auditing those AFS, we were hit by COVID-19 disease and the audit too long.

“It was only on 10December 2020 when we were given the audit outcomes, which was a qualified opinion. It is common that we needed to wait for the audit outcomes that came out on 10 December 2020 to compile the report for 2019/2020 financial year,” said Gabanakgosi.

He said their plan was to submit the AFS in January 2021, but due to some COVID-19 related challenges, they could not submit. Gabanakgosi said three of their officials from the finance department were affected by COVID-19.

“We are planning to submit our AFS for the 2019/2020 financial year at the end of February 2021 and the council have approved our request. Actually, it was not the DA’s recommendation that the matter is sent to the MPAC for investigations.

“The DA statement is misleading because it is the council that took the decision to refer the matter to the MPAC for investigations,” he said.

Meanwhile, the municipal speaker Ebusang Tladi said: “It is untrue that after Maila suggested the suspension of the Municipal Manager, the CFO and the issue of non-compliance on the oversight role by the mayor, I did not give an opportunity to anyone to second that. Unfortunately, no one seconded her on those agendas. So, the item was closed before moving to the next one.”

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Seven people die in a ‘head-on’ collision accident near Vryburg

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Picture: A generic picture depicting an accident/Facebook

By REGINALD KANYANE

Seven people lost their lives in a horrific ‘head-on’ collision accident on N14 outside Vryburg on Sunday. North West MEC for Community Safety and Transport Management, Sello Lehari said two sedans both registered in Gauteng Province, were traveling in opposite directions when they collided about 80 kilometres from Vryburg towards Kuruman.

“It is a tragedy and heart-wrenching. We would like to send our deepest condolences to the families of the deceased. It was so sad that the Jaws of Life was used in a rescue operation, which in turn became recovery as all seven trapped passengers were deceased.

“The preliminary investigation revealed that four were females and three were males. Two of the deceased were identified and were from Morokweng, while the other one was from Ganyesa,” he said.

Lehari applauded those law enforcement officers who rushed to the accident scene to try and rescue those trapped inside the wreckage. He added that it was unfortunate that all involved passed on.

Investigation for the cause of the accident is underway.

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ANC vs ANC: ‘Factional battles at the centre stage in North West’

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Picture: ANC members on a peaceful march against ANC IPC in North West to remove troikas in municipalities

By KEDIBONE MOLAETSI

The political factional battles continue to show its ugly head amongst ANC members in various municipalities. This comes after ANC municipal leaders, who have been ousted, decided to take a legal route as they deem their removals unconstitutional.

However, it seems the battle is far from over as even though the courts rule on their favours, they are now ousted either through petitions or motion of no confidence tabled against them.

The latest municipal leaders to be eliminated are Ratlou Local Municipality acting mayor, Mamoitsadi Phaedi and the municipal speaker, Oabile Seabelo who were removed through petition. The same process has also unfolded in Matlosana, Ditsobotla, Naledi, Maquassi Hills and Tswaing.

Ratlou Local Municipality spokesperson, Lesego Metsi said: “The municipal council has resolved to reinvent its Executive Council Committee (ECC) and replaced the acting mayor and the speaker during a virtual Special Council meeting held on 14 January 2021.

“The move by the council comes as an impulse to regain political stability that has been viewed as a stumbling block to service delivery and smooth administration within the institution. The council resolved to elect Segametsi Ntladi as the new mayor.”

He said that the council also took note of petition and vote of no confidence against the council speaker, Oabile Seabelo and further resolved to remove him from the position of the speaker and to apply consequence management processes against him. Agisanang Ramosidi was elected as the acting speaker.

Meanwhile, the council of Ditsobotla Local Municipality has ousted mayor, Daniel Buthelezi and his Executive Committee with a motion of no confidence, during a Special Council sitting held on 15 January 2021.

According to the municipality spokesperson, Pius Batsile, the majority of councillors have unanimously voted in favour of the removal of the entire Executive Committee during that meeting.

“The council of Ditsobotla has instituted the motion of no confidence on the entire Executive committee based on its lacklustre performance and total failure to bring reports to the council about the appointment of a new financial management system, which is attributed among others to the municipality not billing consumers and producing annual financial statements for auditing purposes.

“Furthermore, the council is convinced that the process of not billing consumers has adversely affected the cash flow of the municipality and impacted on the funding of key service delivery programmes,” Batsile said.

Tsholofelo Moreo was elected as the new mayor.

Some section of ANC members believes that the ANC Interim Provincial Committee (IPC) in the North West is behind the removals of those ANC municipal leaders to further its self-interest. They accused the IPC of trying to capture municipalities in quest of redirecting all tenders to their cronies and raise money for the upcoming Elective Provincial Conference campaigns.   

However, the ANC IPC spokesperson, Kenny Morolong refuted those allegations and called them hogwash. He said the ANC IPC is not a homogenous body, so it cannot remove people with intentions of amassing resources for the conference.

“The ANC IPC in the North West would not have issued the instruction for the removal of the Ratlou Local Municipality’s Chief Whip because in our discussions to remove troikas in five municipalities, Ratlou was not part of them. Any decision to remove an ANC member who occupies public office will be deemed to be in defiance of the position of the organization with issues of the matter of deployment.

“Once the comrade is removed without the sanction of the structure of the organization, we will instruct the comrades involved to reverse that decision. So, IPC will not be under any circumstances given the instruction for the removal of the Ratlou Local Municipality,” Morolong said.

He further said they will respond appropriately to this development after receiving a written report. However, Morolong added that there was an instruction that the troikas in Matlosana and Ditsobatla step down.

“We have instructed these comrades to step down. Our view is that this development is indicative of the ongoing squabbles in the caucuses of these municipalities. We will at an appropriate time as the ANC, provide leadership in respect of the removal of these troikas.

“It will never happen without proper political guidance. So, we will provide requisite guidance on how these processes must ensue. We are going to act on everybody who has chosen to defy the process of the organization,” he said.

Morolong also said they are concerned about ill-discipline that continued to be displayed by some of the ANC members. He said they are going to take harsh actions against the embattled JB Marks Local Municipality mayor and the Lekwa-Teemane Local Municipality, Mpho Pilane.   

“We are going to act on members of the troikas, the mayor of the JB Marks Local Municipality and the mayor of the Lekwa-Teemane. The ANC must prevail over its deployees and it is our responsibility to ensure that the instructions of the IPC is carried and implemented.  

“We are disappointed that ANC deployees are yet to heed to the call of the organization. There are challenges of ill-discipline and improper conduct by ANC members and deployees within the organization,” he said.

Morolong said this is one reason why the IPC was established to rebuild, renew and unite the ANC. However, Morolong admits that they knew that they will come across members of the ANC under normal circumstance who want to defy the call to contribute to the unity of the ANC.

“There is also a committee that addresses those who are in the wrong. This matter continues to be handled by the IPC and we will continue to take disciplinary action against those members who continue to defy the decisions of the ANC. He said.  

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) provincial secretary, Papiki Babuile said: “Actually at the main, is not about service delivery. It is about accessing the funds of the municipalities to enrich themselves. It has been proven that the reshuffling and the removals of individuals have not to bear any fruits.

“The only interest the ANC has is to enrich them. If you go to Ditsobotla for example, they have started with the Municipal Manager who resigned, and later on, they have ousted the Chief Whip and the mayor. The new ones who are already appointed in these positions, they have already started to talk about tenders.”

He said in the Matlosana Local Municipality, the same process is unfolding too. Babuile added that the ANC deployees are fighting over tenders there.

“If the concern was about service delivery, why are they not raising those points in their Portfolio Committees in various municipalities?” asked Babuile.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) Chief Whip in North West, Freedy Sonakile shared the same sentiments. Sonakile said the removal of ANC municipal leaders by their own, is just a mere factional politics at play, nothing serious. 

“Those that they are replacing them with had an oversight role to play and to point out at all wrongdoing but they kept quiet.  They can’t only wake up 6 months before elections. What the people of North West need now is a new government, not recycled cadres,” he said.

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