By OBAKENG MAJE
The situation continues to be dire at the embattled Greater Taung Local Municipality (GTLM). This comes after the shocking reports that the municipality has 47 unverified employees including 17 councillors.
These allegations were raised during a council meeting recently. The Forum 4 Service Delivery (F4SD) councillor, Mika Moeti said it is embarrassing to see this happening after the administration failed to establish who is employed and getting salaries from the municipality.
“I am aware of this matter and it was taken through to the council for discussion. This happened because those who were given a task to do the verification process were not available. So, this means we have incompetent managers who could not even do the verification process.
“It should not be a challenge at all to conduct a verification process on employees because they come to work every day. There are forms that were prepared by the Human Resources (HR) department for employees to fill and confirm their existence,” he said.
On the issue of unverified councillors, Moeti said, he is definitely sure that the number has changed because they had an engagement with the Office of the Speaker regarding the matter.
“It is unacceptable that, we have councillors who cannot verify themselves. Those councillors should know that they have a responsibility to avail themselves.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor, Sam Nape said, there are many issues where they could detect malfeasance and a thorough investigation is needed. Nape said, councillors were requested by the audit department to bring their IDs, so that the verification process can be conducted.
“There were some councillors, who did not comply hence they were unverified. I am only aware of this matter, unless, there is another issue that I am not aware of.
“I understand that sometimes the municipality deliberately keeps information out of our reach as opposition parties because they know we will expose them, so, anything is possible,” he said.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) provincial secretary, Papiki Babuile said: “The widespread corruption that is there, is like the ANC recruiting and appointing leaders, who are corrupt in their nature. This is the nature of the ANC and as soon as we find out that indeed, there are 47 employees who are unverified and illegally appointed, we will make sure that we hold the ANC accountable.
“We will also be forced to report the matter to the Public Protector and Public Service Commission (PSC) to investigate because we might not have the necessary requisites to probe the matter. If the Public Protector find out that, indeed, there are those who were illegally appointed, we will call for those appointments to be reversed and those responsible to be held accountable.”
Meanwhile, the political analyst and Senior Lecturer in Communication Studies at Mpumalanga University, Dr Tshepang Molale said, the Auditor-General (AG) glaring report shows that situation in various municipalities across the country has been on a downward spiral, particularly in the North West.
“Honestly, one would have expected that the new administration across municipalities brings a wind of change. However, it is embarrassing when we look at what is happening in various municipalities like Ditsobotla, Kagisano-Molopo and others.
“We continue to see infightings, turmoil and political interference in some circles and this hampers service delivery. Some political actors fail dismally to deliver what they promised the communities during elections campaigns.”
*The Greater Taung Local Municipality municipal manager, Katlego Gabanakgosi and the municipal spokesperson, Ricky Oliphant failed to respond to our media inquiry despite being sent three weeks ago.
The Guardian 