Lesedi Local Municipality (LLM) on March 10 proposed at a special council meeting that funds be made available to fight a Pretoria High Court ruling which stipulated that it had lost its custodianship of the AG Visser House.
The court ruled on October 18 that the property had to be returned to the Helderwaters (Pty) Ltd, a successor in title to the Rembrandt Group, after LLM had failed to live up to the original lease agreement.
LLM had already exhausted R380 000 in legal fees to fight this matter and the surprising part of this motion was that LLM had until 6 November 2016 to appeal the court ruling, but the matter was only brought before council last week.
In the meantime LLM, the mayor and acting municipal manager could be held in contempt for not returning the property to its rightful owner.
Opposition parties agreed that this ludicrous suggestion to appeal the matter should be cast aside and that consequence management had to be done to establish why the legal fees were so high.
The item was referred back and will be discussed at the following council meeting.
Another contentious issue discussed at the meeting was that of suspended municipal manager Ayanda Makhanya who has been under investigation for more than 13 months.
Normal procedure in matters of this nature is for the investigation to be completed within three months.
Makhanya has thus been earning R100 000 per month for the last 10 months without having to lift a finger – money that could have been spent on either fixing the numerous broken street lights in town or perhaps to fill a pothole or two.
The matter was also referred back.
The cost to repair an average size pothole is R1500 and in extreme cases it can cost up to R5000.
*Heraut has just been informed that LLM has reached a settlement agreement with Makhanya. Details to follow….
