Picture: North West MEC for Social Development, Boitumelo Moiloa/Google
By OBAKENG MAJE
There is a tug-of-war between the North West Social Development, Boitumelo Moiloa, and the Head of Department, Relebohile Mofokane. This was revealed during a meeting, where the department appeared before the North West Provincial Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Social Development and Health on Thursday.
It is alleged that the squabbles between Moiloa and Mofokane were caused by an R130 million security tender that Mofokane allegedly signed off on, even though the Provincial Internal Audit warned him about some discrepancies in bid documents.
The department was scheduled to appear before the committee to process its Annual Performance Plan (APP) and budget for the 2023/24 financial year. However, the chairperson of the committee, Gavin Edwards, sent them packing to sort out their ‘nonsense”.
“The department was sent away because of its failure to resolve persistent squabbles between Moiloa and Mofokane. We felt that the squabbles will affect service delivery. We have resolved to write to the Leader of Government Business, North West MEC for Cooperative Government, Human Settlement and Traditional Affairs (COGHSTA), Nono Maloyi, and the North West Premier, Bushy Maape to urgently intervene.
“The meeting was halted after Mofokane revealed that he had been stripped of his powers as the accounting officer and that he had not been part of developing the APP. So, members of the committee were astonished by Mofokane’s revelation that he had been stripped of his powers as it has been revealed that he signed off tenders two weeks prior to the meeting,” Edwards said.
He further said Mofokane had signed off tenders for security contracts to the value of R130m two weeks ago and it is surprising that he alleged that he had been stripped of his powers. Edwards added that they want to understand what is happening with service delivery because it is clear that Mofokane and Moiloa cannot work together.
“This is not the first time the department has been turned away by the Portfolio Committee. Last year, the committee questioned Mofokane’s appointment and his qualifications.
“Repeated requests by the committee seeking clarity on his appointment were simply ignored by Moiloa and subsequently Maape. Members of the committee raised their concerns with both Moiloa and Mofokane, questioning what actually happens to service delivery, while they are clearly more concerned with internal squabbling and battles rather than ensuring effective services,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the member of the committee, Freddy Sonakile said: “As the Democratic Alliance, we are quite perplexed and believe that this is unprecedented whereby, we see such arguments between the Moiloa and Mofokane over a legal document that was supposed to assist the department and the residents to be able to get funds for the department to start functioning.
“What is funny is that it is not the first time that the department was turned away by the committee due to its internal squabbles. So, we are not taking this lightly and we believe that action must be taken, especially against Mofokane who in this case, clearly failed on his fiducial duties.”
Sonakile said they have been contacted by a number of NPOs, whose survival depends on funding from the department. He said they told them that they are struggling because they cannot get hold of their subsidies and SLAs are still not signed by the department.
The North West Social Development spokesperson, Petrus Siko said, he will respond to the allegations after he had gathered more details. The response will be incorporated into the article when received.
The Guardian 