BY REGINALD KANYANE

THE Matlosana municipality says investigations are underway to establish the truth of allegations that a security company hired to guard the municipality’s water purification plants uses paintball guns.

It has been alleged that Tshireletso Security Company arms its guards with paintball guns instead of real firearms, a situation described as scandalous.

The DA’s Chris Hattingh said: “The DA discovered that some guards are only equipped with batons and not even paintball guns. It is absolutely unacceptable and an affront to the people of Matlosana that this security business received more than R24m for its services in a 22-month period without so much as a single firearm on site.”

He said the DA had submitted a letter demanding that the security company’s contract be terminated after an audit report from July until May 2015.

Hattingh said the reports showed that the company was in breach of contract.

“Despite this, huge contract payments to the company continued after this audit report. Municipal property valued at R820 000 was still stolen or destroyed from under its nose,” he said.

Matlosana mayor Kagiso Khauoe said the municipality was under administration and all submitted grievances were under forensic investigation.

“All the enquiries are now under forensic investigations, including the Tshireletso security company. We started to offer the company posts that needed no firearms and we will look into which areas demanded armed guards and take it from there,” Khauoe said.
-TDN
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