Mogale City - African National Congress Mogale City local municipality councillor Dennis Thabe - an ordinary city councillor and allegedly a close friend of former ANC Mogale City mayor Koketso Calvin Seerane - has been living rent-free in the mayoral house for about 14 months and has also defaulted on payments for municipal services, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday.
This emerged in a written reply by Gauteng human settlements, co-operative governance, and traditional affairs MEC Paul Mashatile to a question in the provincial legislature, DA MPL Lebo More said.
According to Mashatile, there was no lease agreement for the occupation of the house signed between the municipality and Thabe, More said.
"This means that councillor Thabe is enjoying privileges that he does not deserve. These privileges include free accommodation, security services, garden services, and the maintenance of the mansion. This shows that the uncaring ANC government does as it pleases to the benefit of themselves and their allies and is unconcerned about the welfare of our people," More said.
Despite the fact that Mogale City under the ANC government was struggling with finances and the delivery of services to its own residents, Thabe was defaulting on payments for municipal services at the mayoral house.
Mashatile said the municipality had opened a sundry account to recover the money Thabe owed to the municipality and the matter would be handed over for debt collection.
"It is an absolute disgrace that a squatter who is benefitting illegally from the municipality and who is also a leader of the community is failing to pay municipal bills, as he should lead by example," More said.
The DA would engage Mashatile to ensure that Thabe paid all the money he owed to the municipality. Thabe had to be evicted from the mayoral mansion or sign a lease to rent at a market-related rental aligned with similar rentals in the area.
"The DA insists that the outstanding rental be recouped. We will also monitor the actions of the ANC councillors in Mogale City to ensure that they don’t abuse state resources. In the DA-led City of Tshwane we are selling the mayoral mansion and using the money to deliver better services to our informal settlement residents. The ANC-led Mogale City can copy what we are doing for the benefit of our people instead of continuing to abuse municipal resources," More said.