The North West Provincial Legislature’s Cooperative Governance (Cogta) Committee lashed out at the municipality for failing to take action against the Municipal Manager (MM), Chief Finance Officer (CFO), and the procurement officer for alleged Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) corruption. 

According to the SIU spokesperson, Kaizer Kganyago, an amount of R25 million was allegedly spent in an irregular manner and the referrals have since been sent to the office of the Premier, Bushy Maape, who has since promised action.

Kganyago tells OFM News that for the implementation of the recommendations, the council need to sit and adopt the referrals but he understands that there were disruptions that led to the council not sitting. OFM News previously reported that the MEC for Cogta, Lenah Miga, called on the Setlagole-based municipality's council to act on a report by the SIU.

Also read: NW MEC demands action over SIU report

In his 2022 State of the Province Address (SOPA), the premier announced that following the publication of the SIU's investigation and report on the PPE contracts, all MECs and accounting officers were expected to act on all recommendations on disciplinary cases cited in this report before the end of March 2022.

Meanwhile, following the announcement by Premier Maape, Miga released a statement in which she said "with regards to the Ratlou Local Municipality, I have requested the council to act on the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) report which has recommended that disciplinary action be taken against the Municipal Manager, Tebogo Chanda. The former Administrator of Ratlou had previously acted and placed Chanda on suspension. He took the matter to court and his case was dismissed with costs”.

In 2021, the SIU investigators and the Hawks raided the offices of the municipality after the municipality allegedly failed to cooperate with the SIU investigation.

Also read: SIU raids offices of Ratlou Local Municipality, North West

This week, the provincial Portfolio Committee on the Premier, Finance, Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs, chaired by Aaron Motswana, said the officials were found guilty of misconduct for failing to prevent losses by permitting the municipality to procure PPE items at wholly inflated prices; and failing to ensure that the municipality followed Treasury Regulation Circular 100 regarding the pricing of PPE items, and failing to act with fidelity, honesty, integrity and in the best interest of the municipality in managing its financial resources.

“Why would the municipality fail to implement a directive from the Presidency as the SIU investigations were commissioned by President Cyril Ramaphosa?

“The report was not taken for review by all those implicated and therefore it is unacceptable for the municipality to just sit with it and not implement consequence management.

“Municipal Council should also have a clear plan on how to recover the misappropriated funds to the latter. If the municipality has a panel of lawyers on its database, they should be formally asked to charge implicated individuals. The Municipal Public Accounts Committee will also have to deal with matters of supply chain transgressions,” Motswana said.

OFM News