The Public Protector’s office will visit Heidelberg on February 17 and will host a public meeting at the Ratanda Multi-Purpose Hall where all residents of Lesedi Local Municipality can present their complaints and problems to a forum for consideration.
Mayoral mansion canned as ANC makes drastic u-turn
First they wanted more money for the project, but as the pressure mounted the ANC of Lesedi Local Municipality made a dramatic u-turn and decided to rather save face by cancelling any further construction of a mansion for the mayor which was being built in the Heidelberg suburb of Bergsig.
The project which started in 2015 was cancelled on January 31 and council now hopes to recover some of the R1.5 million it had invested by selling the property.
Council had originally budgeted R1.5 million for the project, but later the ruling party presented a project plan which would have seen the total cost amount to R3.4 million.
The additional R1.9 million (more than double the original total) was not approved or presented to council. The appointment of the building contractors was also allegedly done via a verbal agreement and HERAUT has been reliably informed that approximately R500 000 worth of work which has been paid for has not been completed by the said contractor.
The sudden change of heart by the ANC last week is believed to have a direct link to a threat posed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) that said it would have no other option but to bring the matter under the attention of the Department of Corporative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), the Auditor General’s Office and National Treasury if more funds were allocated.
Opposition parties had previously requested that a forensic audit be conducted by the Auditor General based on a recommendation by the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) which found LMM to be guilty of fruitless and/or wasteful expenditure to the tune of R58 million.
This audit has not been conducted as required.
Meanwhile DA caucus leader for LLM Gerry Holtzhausen said that they welcomed the decision to scrap the house and that “fortunately sanity prevailed at the end as they (the ANC) decided not to proceed with an unauthorised plan.”
Holtzhausen pointed out that the most expensive house in Bergsig currently sells for R1.5 million and that spending more than double that amount in that suburb would have been ludicrous.
This decision was also welcomed by the Economic Freedom Fighters who have been lobbying for funds to be made available to improve sports facilities within LLM.
“This is a great milestone considering just how much money has been spent,” the EFFs sub-regional coordinator Isaac Khithika said. “Being the vanguard of the community, the EFF will mobilise the youth, sports organisations, NGOs and other progressive forces to march against the negligence of sports facilities in our area
