High-ranking Free State African National Congress politicians, including Premier Beatrice Marshoff, recently told embattled officials of the Matjhabeng municipality in the northern Free State to ”pull up their socks”.
The municipality, hit by riots over poor service delivery, has been plagued by financial mismanagement and corruption since it was established three years ago. Last year, for the third year in a row, the auditor general was unable to express an audit opinion on the financial affairs of the municipality.
In January the municipal manager, Sylvester Sesele, was suspended for poor performance and BT Khoali, project manager in the municipality, was suspended in July.
In April police raided the council’s offices, and those of a firm contracted to maintain street lighting, in an investigation of a R6-million fraud. The police are investigating two other top municipal officials.
Premier Marshoff and ANC provincial chairperson Ace Magashule met the acting municipal manager, Nkrumah Pitso, and other regional managers on Monday to discuss the elections and recent incidents in the municipality.
Magashule denied that this was to reprimand officials for their poor performance. ”It was just a straightforward regular meeting, but that does not mean we told the municipality they did not need to work harder.”
Allegations of tender irregularities in the Matjhabeng municipality, which encompasses Welkom and Odendaalsrus, persist. The most recent relate to contracts worth R44-million to build toilets and eradicate bucket sanitation in townships.
At least one of the toilet tenders was rushed through in a bid to avoid underspending on a municipal infrastructure grant, exposing the council to legal challenges from companies that lost out. One such contract was awarded to local contractors Reatlehile, while the Mail & Guardian has in its possession papers showing that several other firms bid lower.
Pitso said the apparent inconsistency arose because there were two sets of specifications. The first was for pre-cast concrete structures, which Reatlehile won on price and BEE credentials. A second version of the tender called for labour- intensive construction where brick would be used. The municipality at first decided on the first option, ”but then the mayor said we must go the labour-intensive route”.
At this point, Pitso insisted, it was too late to restart the process, and Reatlehile kept the job.
Pitso denied that pressure to spend quickly had led to rushed or unprocedural decisions.
The council had invoked emergency provisions to award the tenders quickly because it would otherwise have lost the cash under the ”use it or lose it” provisions governing municipal infrastructure grants.
”There have been protests here. The president was here a month ago. It is very embarrassing when the president says: you have money that is supposed to be spent and you are not taking decisions fast enough.”
Pitso shrugged off allegations of tender irregularities and concerns about the role of his adviser, Sefako Molekwa. He said the claims stemmed from anger over reforms he (Pitso) had introduced.
”When I [became municipal manager] the tender system was a joke. It could have subjected the municipality to litigation for fruitless expenditure,” he said. Pitso was the municipality’s financial chief before taking over as municipal manager.
Pitso said that within two weeks of Molekwa’s appointment as consultant, ”we managed to move forward on a number of things without which we would have lost R74-million on the 2004/5 budget”.
Earlier this year a public library and the local municipal offices were set alight, and a police station was stoned by local residents protesting against lack of service provision.
This month officials of the municipality clashed at a council meeting when it emerged that two private consultants had been paid R5-million last year to help Pitso draw up financial statements for the auditor general. No record of a tender, contract, or council approval could be found.
Council speaker TV Matsepe admitted that it was struggling with financial mismanagement. ”We keep on getting these bombshells, and someone has to answer for them,” he said.
Pitso said the municipality now had an 89-page action plan with time-frames up to November for implementation.
A sad state of affairs
July 2004: Private consultants were paid R5-million to help Nkrumah Pitso draw up financial statements.
January 2005: Municipal manager, Sylvester Sesele suspended for poor performance.
April 2005: Police raid the council’s offices in an investigation of a R6-million fraud.
July 2005: BT Khoali, municipal project manager, is suspended.
Early 2005: A library and municipal offices are set alight and a police station stoned by residents protesting against lack of service provision.
September 2005: Free State African National Congress politicians, including Premier Beatrice Marshoff, (right) tell Matjhabeng municipality to ”pull up their socks”.