By REGINALD KANYANE
The Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality continues to be marred with fraud, corruption and maladministration allegations under the stewardship of Boitumelo Mahlangu.
This comes after the startling allegations levelled against some of the municipal officials that they paid a service provider, HT Pelatona Projects PTY (LTD) a whopping R16 million in advance for ‘raising the main from the Bloemhof WTW to Olievenfontein and elevate tank and pump station.’
EFF regional chairperson, Tebogo Babuile said they have written a letter to the beleaguered Mahlangu as the political head requesting her to explain these allegations. He said Section 56 of the Municipal Structure Act stipulates clearly that it is the responsibility of the executive mayor to monitor the work of the administration.
“It cannot be that the municipality paid upfront payment. Whether it was an upfront payment of the entire project or payment for the material on-site, the fact remains that the municipality paid R16m to Pelatona.
“Now, they are saying the payment was for material on site. However, we went there as the EFF leadership and did our own oversight and assessment, but we can confirm that there was no material on site,” Babuile said.
He further said it is unlawful for the municipality to pay such an amount for the material set to be on-site, but the reality of the matter was that the material was not on site. Bauile said they will demand that Mahlangu give a report back to the council so that it can be able to take a resolution.
“As the EFF, we are also more interested to find out who was part of these shenanigans. We want the names of all those officials that were on duty on 16 December 2020. We also want to check whether if the municipality paid them overtime because it was on a public holiday.
“This is not the first instance. Back in December 2019, the then acting Municipal Manager, Mpho Mothibi paid off the Izwelethu Sam Force the amount of R21 million for material on site, but when we went there, the material was not on-site,” he said.
Babuile added that they are a concern as EFF because it seems it is now a norm in the district that every Municipal Manager who comes in will then pay a company millions of rands without ensuring that there is material on site.
He said if these allegations are true, they want every official who participated in these unlawful and illegal activities to be suspended with immediate effect.
“We also call on the municipality to start with internal investigation process before we even go to the law enforcement agencies,” he highlighted.
However, Gaolatlhwe Kgabo who is a Member of Mayoral Committee (MMC) responsible for infrastructure at the municipality refuted the allegations.
Kgabo said: “It is important to clarify the fact that the contractor was appointed in line with the Supply Chain Management policies of the municipality. Yes, indeed the contractor was paid R16 million, however, it was not in advance as it was reported.
“The contractor was paid R16m for the material that was on site. Basically, before the payment was processed, there was verification done just to confirm that there is material on site. Subsequent to that, we got a letter from the factory confirming that the contractor has fully paid the material.”
He said the material was just kept due to the festive break and as the result, they can safely confirm that the payment was not for the advanced payment but rather for material on site. Kgabo added that the material was currently being delivered to the site.
The Guardian 