Plettenberg Bay’s Bitou council has asked for advice from lawyers on how it should deal with the allegations against its municipal manager and its former mayor, speaker Lawrence Luiters said on Thursday.
He was speaking after the release of a report by the special investigating unit that recommends criminal and disciplinary action against the two men, accused of abusing official credit cards and allowances.
The unit’s report, requested by Western Cape local government minister Richard Dyantiyi, was debated in the provincial public accounts committee on Wednesday.
It calls for manager George Seitisho and former mayor Euan Wildeman, an ordinary councillor since the March 1 local government polls, to be suspended pending a council disciplinary inquiry, and for police to investigate fraud and theft charges against both men.
Luiters said though the council had not ”officially” seen the report, it received a briefing on it from mayor Lulama Mvimbi last Wednesday.
At that meeting, the council decided to ask independent lawyers for recommendations on the way forward. ”We obviously don’t want to burn our own hands,” he said.
A special council meeting will probably be called when the lawyers’ recommendations arrive. This will be in ”the very near future”.
The special investigating unit reported that in the 18 months to August 2004, Seitisho used more than R170 000 in municipal funds on private spending.
The report claims that both he and Wildeman failed to rectify overpayments of R14 229 each for a trip to Europe.
The South African Police Service’s commercial branch in Oudtshoorn has in fact had a docket open on Seitisho’s affairs since a Democratic Alliance councillor laid a formal complaint in May last year.
Seitisho at one time acted simultaneously as manager of Bitou, Kokstad and the troubled Kannaland municipality.
He said on Thursday afternoon that he had no comment on the unit’s report.
The council had asked for a legal opinion, ”so I’m waiting for that”, he said. ”I’m waiting for my council to come back to me. I don’t want to pre-empt anything.” — Sapa