Martin Kubeka, who has since dragged the cash-strapped municipality to the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) to fight his removal, says his removal by the council is illegal.

ALSO READ: Kopanong Municipality fires accounting officer

He alleges that a council that sat in Bethulie on 17 May 2021 resolved to extend his contract, but a council which then perceived him as a Magashule ally, illegally removed him. Kubeka says even around December 2021, council illegally suspended him without following the due process of disciplining an accounting officer of a municipality.

OFM News previously reported that in December 2021, Kubeka was warned about his suspension, but later in a turn of events, council ended up suspending him.

ALSO READ: Kopanong MM suspended

Mayor Xolani Tseletsele has since promised to respond to OFM News’ inquiry soon.

“Can I say something? When the mayor arrived in office he wanted a new car and [we] said mayor we are a struggling municipality, and we are even struggling to pay salaries of workers. I am suggesting that for now you utilise an Audi A6 vehicle which belonged to your predecessor. 

"But he told me that he was not going to use that car and I tried to tell him that we can't rent a car for him at that time, and further asked that he uses the car because it was still in good condition. 

"There were two Audi A6 model cars, with one belonging to the former speaker which the current speaker decided to use. So, I am not sure if the mayor thought that I was undermining him in any way, but I thought the process would have been cost-effective because you know that we have serious debts with service providers such as Bloem Water and all others. 

"We also tried to at least buy standard phones and avoid the flamboyant tendencies of using expensive phones like an iPhone and what not, because as a responsible accounting officer I tried to really advise the mayor,“ Kubeka adds.

The municipality remains one of the municipalities in the Free State with a lot of debt. They owe at least R26 million to workers’ pension, among others.

In 2021, a Free State High Court Judge ordered that the municipality’s account should be attached, owing to the aforementioned debt. But the judgment was later lifted following months of not paying workers’ salaries.

OFM News