Premier Mabuza visits Mkhondo and meets community
30 August 2009
Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza visited the Mkhondo Local Municipality on Sunday to meet the with the community and give feedback on the allegations leveled against the municipal administration. When the Premier visited the community in June 2009, he appointed a team of investigator to investigate these allegations, and promised to report back in 30 days.
The investigators have since submitted a preliminary report to the Premier. The Premier would like to thank the community for co-operating during the period the municipality has been put under administration. Today, the Premier presented these findings to the Community. These were the findings;
On Financial Mismanagement, the investigation report has revealed that there has been mismanagement of moneys allocated for projects. There have also been municipal officials found to have been paid unduly. Such moneys must be recouped and implicated officials should face disciplinary hearing. Some officials and councillors have been found to have misused municipal credit cards. The use of credit cards has been discontinued by the Administrator. There was no policy to deal with credit cards. The administrator will immediately set up a policy on use of council credit cards. Disciplinary hearings will be held against the implicated officials. In most municipalities the use of credit cards has been long stopped.
Fleet management, The preliminary report has also indicated that there was a lack of proper monitoring and accountability on municipal vehicles, which led to the misuse of government fleet and wastage of fuel. The Administrator has started putting systems in place to minimize the abuse of council resources.
With regards to employment of personnel, the findings have indicated that there have been cases where individuals were employed illegally in breach of the employment procedures. These dubious appointments will be probed further and individuals found to have been wrongfully employed will be dealt with be released from work.
The municipality has started designing new policies and systems that will ensure that all employees of the municipality are appointed in a transparent manner based on their skills and competencies. Nepotism will not be tolerated. Disciplinary action will commence immediately against all implicated individuals.
The Administrator will be given four months to conclude all outstanding matters on the investigations, and MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Norman Mokoena will continue to oversee the process.
Enquiries:
Mabutho Sithole
Cell: 082 398 3348
Simphiwe Kunene
Cell: 082413 3931
Vusi Mashabane
Cell: 076 762 6510
Issued by the Office of the Premier-Mpumalanga Provincial Government
