JUSTIN ARENSTEIN, Bethal | Wednesday
THE mayor of one of 12 rural Mpumalanga towns teetering on the brink of bankruptcy has defied expert advice and splurged council funds on a party for 150 officials honouring controversial provincial director general Advocate Stanley Soko.
Bethal mayor Mandla Khayiyane this week staged the celebration, which was closed to the public, despite the fact that Bethal has been refused new bank overdraft facilities due to its financial plight, and will run out of operational funds by December unless there is a “radical” improvement in rates payments and other revenue generation.
He also ignored written warnings by the council’s treasury department that the town faced serious cash-flow problems and could not afford parties.
Former local government MEC Fish Mahlalela said in a cabinet report earlier this year that Bethal and other towns such as Graskop, Dullstroom and Standerton “live from hand to mouth” and only generate enough funding to service consumer creditors.
All the towns were ordered to implement strict new financial management and credit control regimes.
Khayiyane confirmed that the council recently unilaterally reversed some of the credit control measures, including orders to cut electricity to all rate defaulters.
Council officials have instead been ordered to immediately reconnect all those who had services cut for non-payment.
Bethal’s treasury report notes the policy reversal sparked a significant drop in rates payments to below 40% in some suburbs.
“We are experiencing short-term cash-flow problems but this is a small function for only roughly 100 to 150 people. We are also using money from the Mayoral Fund and our council entertainment budget, so there will be no problem,” said Khayiyane.
“Advocate Soko is a role model for our youth. He grew up in Bethal and is proof that it is possible to do something important and to rise above [poverty] if you have education,” said Khayiyane.
Soko was appointed to Mpumalanga’s most powerful administrative post in August after his predecessor was exposed as an illegal Zimbabwean immigrant with dubious qualifications.
Soko is, however, still fighting damning criticism of his management capabilities in the 1997 Moldenhauer Commission, which found that he tried to derail internal probes into licence fraud, was unable to control his staff, attempted to cover up for their inadequacies by doing their work, and did not have managerial ability. – African Eye News Service