At least 10 municipal managers and 10 chief financial officers have been suspended pending disciplinary hearings, and three municipal managers and one CFO have been dismissed on charges including financial mismanagement and poor performance, according to acting Co-operative Governance Minister Nathi Mthethwa.
According to the minister’s written reply to a parliamentary question, both the municipal manager and CFO at Limpopo’s Elias Motsoaledi Municipality were sacked, while two unnamed municipal managers in the North West were also given the boot.
In the North West, where the run-up to the local government election was bedevilled by tensions over councillor nominations, there have been 22 disciplinary cases related to alleged fraud, corruption and misconduct. Ten senior managers have been suspended, two municipal managers dismissed and one case was brought before the courts.
An auditor-general’s report on the state of municipal financial management, presented to the cabinet in March but not yet released to the public, recommended the government intervene in a third of councils in the country to sort out the mess.
The report revealed that 107 of the country’s local councils and two municipal entities together squandered R5 billion in unauthorised expenditure, of which R1.1bn had since been written off.
It also showed that 168 municipalities and 22 municipal entities together incurred irregular expenditure of more than R4.1bn, of which they reported only R440 million.
The remaining R3.7bn was uncovered only when auditors went through the books with a fine-tooth comb.
Mthethwa said in his reply on Monday the local government turnaround strategy had prioritised labour relations and trained 119 prosecutors and 17 practitioners as mentors in February to deal with the disciplinary case load.
In Gauteng, an undisclosed number of senior officials – defined as municipal managers or those directly reporting to the municipal manager – were suspended in Ekurhuleni for transgressions including failure to disclose personal interests, fraud, corruption, sexual harassment, incompatibility and poor work performance.
In Pretoria, disciplinary charges had been laid against an undisclosed number of senior officials for contravening supply chain management requirements.
In the Western Cape, the technical services director of Saldanha Bay had been suspended, while in the Overberg district council the municipal manager and corporate services manager were on suspension. Elsewhere, suspensions included the Swellendam municipal manager, the Kannaland municipal manager and CFO, the George municipal manager, CFO and community safety director, the Prince Albert CFO as well as the Oudtshoorn corporate services director.
In Limpopo, five top officials were facing disciplinary charges.
In Mookgophong Municipality, both the municipal manager and CFO were suspended over maladministration and non-performance.
In the Sekhukhune District Council, the municipal manager was suspended because of continuous audit disclaimers and the lack of an action plan to deal with issues raised by the auditor-general.
At the Ba Phalaborwa Council, the CFO was suspended for insubordination while Greater Tzaneen’s engineering director was suspended because of incompetence and refusal to sign employment and performance contracts.
In Mpumalanga, five senior managers were suspended in three councils, including the CFO in Nkomazi Municipality for financial mismanagement and the Lekwa Municipality’s CFO for alleged falsification of an interviewing panel’s recommendations and results.
The suspension of the municipal manager at Dr JS Moroka Municipality had been challenged at the Labour Court, while precautionary suspension notices of the CFO and technical and facilities manager were issued at the end of February.
At the Kamiesberg Municipality in the Northern Cape, the CFO was suspended, while at the Dikgatlong Council, the municipal manager and technical services manager, who were suspended in April last year, were “offered a lump sum” to be “relieved” of their duties.
In the Free State, the Mohokare municipal manager was suspended following allegations of financial mismanagement, while the CFO at Lejweleputswa District Council was suspended because of poor performance. The Nala Municipality had been placed under administration.
However, several other councils were under the spotlight following allegations of corruption and fraud, including the Naledi and Masilonyana municipalities, while the Public Protector was investigating the dismissal of the internal auditor at the Xhariep District Council. The written response said the Free State administration had to consider a report on alleged major maladministration, theft, bribery, fraud and corruption at the Matjhabeng Municipality. – Political Bureau