
By OBAKENG MAJE
The Greater Taung Local Municipality (GTLM) mayor, Tumisang Gaoraelwe and the municipal speaker, Grace Moipolai are under fire from opposition parties after they allegedly bought two luxury BMWs worth R1.6 million barely four months in office.
This comes after they alleged that their previous cars, the BMW 2015 model and the Nissan X-Trail 2015 are bewitched. According to the Democratic Alliance’s Member of Parliament (MP), Sello Seitlholo, who is also the DA’s Greater Taung Constituency Head, they will press the municipality to launch a deeper internal probe on the alleged splurging of taxpayers’ money.
“We regard the procurement of the BMWs with a price tag worth of R 1.6 million for exclusive use by two politicians during these hard economic times as a slap in the faces of our impoverished communities, who must grapple daily with going to bed hungry, decaying infrastructures, horrible access roads, virtually non-existent sanitation, nagging water supply outages and housing backlogs.
“Whether such vehicles have been procured on lease or freehold basis could never be justifiable as in either way, the cost to the unsuspecting communities and taxpayers is exorbitant, irresponsible and insensitive,” he said.
Seitlholo further said the GTLM is a Grade 3 level municipality largely dependent on equitable share grants for financial sustenance given the virtually non-existent municipal revenue collections from its mostly indigent community base.

He added that the municipality is currently sitting on Auditor General’s financial disclaimer for the past two consecutive accounting periods.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) provincial secretary, Papiki Babuile said, it is ridiculous for the municipality to splurge that money considering that it is facing a financial crisis and is unable to deliver adequate services to its residents.
He said the residents of Taung do not have access to tarred roads and drinkable water.
“Generally, we do not have municipalities in the North West. Not even a single one, which we can point at and say this municipality is better than one. However, we have cadres of the ANC, who are deployed to enrich themselves and maintain their life-style through the public purse.
“It does not make any sense for the mayor to buy close to R1.6 million cars when you do not have proper roads. Just in front of the municipality, there is a serious challenge of roads. The area also has a challenge of water, while the mayor goes and buys R1.6 million cars,” said Babuile.
African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) councillor in the municipality, Gaolatlhwe Tshipo shared the same sentiments.
Tshipo said: “While we acknowledge that the speaker’s vehicle is in the range that is stipulated by the National Treasury regulation that governs the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA), we are of concern that the mayor’s vehicle has exceeded the budget.
“Again, the cars bought are not user-friendly in comparison to the roads of Taung. These cars are more sophisticated to be used in comparison to our inaccessible roads in Taung. So, we think they are more urban and will hinder the mayor and speaker’s movements in fulfilling their duties,” said Tshipo.

Meanwhile, the municipal mayor, Tumisang Gaoraelwe arrogantly said: “The municipality does not just wake-up and decide to buy cars. The Political Office Bearers Act dictates that the mayor and speaker are both required to perform, attend official duties and functions on behalf of the municipality.
“I personally do not subscribe to uncivilised, primitive and dogmatic beliefs. To put it lightly, I do not believe in witchcraft. If cars can be bewitched, why cannot offices, chairs and tables that were used by former mayors/speakers be bewitched too?”
Gaoraelwe said according to the mayoral handbook, vehicles used for political office-bears are replaced or transferred to municipal car-pools, after completion of 150 000 kilometres mileage.
“The National Treasury Instruction No.6 of 2019/2020 (The 2019 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement) says the price threshold is revised from R700 000 to R800 000 inclusive of VAT. So, these cars are going to impact positively and efficiently on service delivery.
“Both our previous cars were purchased during the 2012-2016 council term. A Nissan X-Trail 2015 with registration number JJN392NW that was used by the speaker has more than 250 000 km mileage,” said Gaoraelwe.
He further said the BMW 2015 model with registration number, JKC623NW used by previous mayor, has also reached more than 250 000km mileage.
According to Municipal Mayoral Member (MMC) chairperson on Finance, Mika Moeti from F4SD, the mayor’s BMW X3 cost R774 451 inclusive of VAT, while the speaker’s BMW X1 cost R612 389 inclusive of VAT.












