Pretoria - The ANC in Tshwane has called for the Auditor-General (AG) to recoup the billions in irregular expenditure incurred by the City of Tshwane during the 2017/2018 financial year.
Last week, the AG revealed the City incurred a R5 billion irregular expenditure for the period under review.
ANC regional chairperson Dr Kgosi Maepa said the AG painted a picture of Tshwane as the worst performing metro in the country.
He said the AG fell short of calling for Tshwane to be placed under administration. Maepa was addressing journalists at Tshwane House yesterday.
He called for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Lebogang Maile to intervene in the municipality by revoking Section 139, which gave him powers to put the City under the provincial administration.
He said failure to intervene could lead to the total collapse of the City within 90 days.
Maepa said: “We would like to request the AG to immediately use and apply the amendments of the legislation and recoup money wasted and irregularly spent by the (corrupt) DA/EFF coalition government.”
He pointed out the City had failed to spend half of its R4bn capital expenditure for 2018/2019 budget. “This is money meant for new infrastructure in housing, roads and libraries,” he said.
Maepa reiterated calls for the suspension of City manager Dr Moeketsi Mosola, saying he must be held accountable for illegal appointment of engineering company GladAfrica.
The AG found the company was irregularly appointed by the City for assisting in the roll out of infrastructure projects worth millions of rand.
Maepa said: “The ANC calls on the executive mayor (Stevens Mokgalapa), Speaker of Council (Katlego Mathebe) and Chief Whip (Christo van den Heever) to arrange a special council sitting by latest July 10, 2019, for the sitting to suspend the City manager.”
He further questioned the appointments of senior officials including Previn Govender (Emergency Services) and chief of metro police Johanna Nkomo. He accused Govender of lying about his qualifications and Nkomo of not being in possession of a diploma in traffic management. “We call upon the executive mayor to immediately remedy the situation,” he said.
He said the South African Qualifications Authority had confirmed that Govender lied about his qualifications.
Maepa said the ANC was vindicated by the report because it had been consistent in exposing failures of the city administration for the past nine months.
“We also call upon the AG and other law enforcement agencies to immediately come into the City of Tshwane to conduct investigations and reveal to residents why the City of Tshwane has been plunged into financial crisis by the DA/EFF nefarious coalition government of corruption.”
Mayoral spokesperson Norman Mohale hit back at the ANC, saying it was being opportunistic.
He said the irregular expenditure in question was as a result of contracts inherited by the DA-led administration from the ANC municipality.
According to him, the contracts included the Moipone fleet management, broadband and Peu smart metres, which accounted for R3.5bn of the irregular expenditure.
Regarding Nkomo, he said the City had applied for a waiver in her instance and that was why she was employed. “She is the police officer who has served at the highest level in the SAPS,” he said.