Desiree van der Walt reacts on municipal response

Article in your newspaper on 3 April 2015 – Response by the GTM Spokesperson, Neville Ndlala.

As a citizen of Tzaneen I would like to comment on your article on page 3 of the above mentioned date.

Firstly, let us not forget that mr Neville Ndlala is the spokesperson of the GTM and it is job to always defend his bosses.

Secondly, we should always give credit when credit is due. This must be one of the quickest responses I have ever read from the GTM when they received criticism in the media. I trust that he is also providing 100% accurate information – which I am sure my colleagues will verify through Parliament.

I am particularly interested on the GTM’s spending on legal fees. Mr Ndlala quotes an amount of R10.2 million for the 2014-15 financial year. He also quotes that “a bulk of the legal cases dates back to as far as 2008”.

During March I asked the Minister of CoGTA, Pravin Gordon, how much each municipality in Limpopo spend over several years on legal fees, what the cases were for, number of cases, number cases won, number cases settled out of court, etc.

Note that the GTM did not provide any of the above information to the Minister’s office.

Why not?

I have raised the issue of legal action with the Minister Gordhan and MEC Makhurupetjie, as the officials in municipalities think they have an “open cheque book” with the rate payers money to do as they please.

There must be criteria on when a municipality takes legal action, when they can appeal, how they appoint their legal teams and at what rates as I believe in most cases in Limpopo, it is inflated.

But it starts by appointing qualified staff, awarding of tenders to those who will deliver appropriately and on time; and by focusing on the functions of a local municipality which is service delivery to all its citizens and maintenance on current infrastructure.

It will be helpful if mr Ndlala also informs the citizens when their Web page will be functional as www.tzaneen.gov.za is “down for maintenance. Please check back again soon.” Will GTM as per law, upload all the documents and info citizens need to be informed on?

Then, whilst mr Ndlala is so kind to offer us (citizens have the Right anyway) insight to their financial statements, etc please can he also provide the citizens on why the GTM did not submit their financial statements for the 2012-13 year on time as required by legislation? What audit opinion did the GTM received from the Auditor General for 2012-13 financial year?

We know that the GTM received a Qualified opinion in 2010-11 and regressed to a Disclaimer opinion in 2011-12. GTM, if their were no citizens, you would not exist – quality service delivery and transparency should be your only goals.