The Democratic Alliance (DA) caucus leader in Mopani District Municipality council, Marie Helm, said that they will write to the speaker, Wireless Sedibeng, and the municipal manager, Quite Kgatla to follow up on the progress made to recover overpayments of councillors.
She said the DA urgently calls on councillors to pay back the money.
Helm said that a report tabled during a council sitting on 30 October last year on overpayment and underpayment of councillors, indicated that during 2016 – 2019 officials apparently miscalculated, misunderstood or misinterpreted the applicable legislation related to remuneration of councillors.
“This led to the overpayment of councillors. What seems to be gross incompetence led to the overpayment of 27 councillors in the 2016/17 financial year of R1 319 992.60. During the 2017/18 financial year nine councillors were overpaid in the total amount of R1 004 776,” said Helm.
She further said that the DA is concerned that various reports indicate different amounts as the figures differed from the amount in the management report. “It is clear that incompetence hampers financial accountability in the MDM. Council resolved on 30 October 2020 that all councillors who were overpaid had to make arrangements to repay the funds. Letters were subsequently sent to councillors indicating the overpayment and the instruction to pay back,” she explained.
The DA urges urgent follow-up of these repayments as it is most likely that some of the councillors will not be re-elected on 27 October 2021
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. “We further call on the municipal manager to hold officials accountable for the gross negligence as it negatively impacts the finances of the municipality. We believe that the MDM must be applauded for the openness to table this sensitive report to council but needs to make it count by ensuring that all councillors make repayments as per the agreements in place,” said Helm.
Helm added that the DA will continue to put pressure on municipal councils to enforce consequence management and prudent financial spending.
MDM spokesperson, Odas Ngobeni, conceded that indeed some councillors were overpaid, while others were underpaid for the duration as stated by the DA.
Ngobeni said that the error was caused by misinterpretation of the notice as issued by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs on the determination of upper limits of salaries, allowances and benefits for different members of the municipal council.
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“And together we agree it was an error at the level of administration, and that councillors are not at fault. As a result of this misinterpretation, the salaries and allowances of councillors were miscalculated. “Difficult as it is, councillors have resolved at the level of council to repay the money, and we have to appreciate that sacrifice because they took that decision knowing very well that it will impact on their own livelihoods, but it is for the greater good,” said Ngobeni.
He further said that councillors are repaying the money as per the resolution of the council.
“We can only advise the DA to use the relevant council structures to pursue this issue. We have been very open about this issue, and they acknowledge that in their statement as well. Council is very clear on its stance around consequence management, and there’s track to prove this. The accounting officer should ordinarily be held accountable, especially for an error as costly as this, but we have had changes at that level before this error was discovered,” said Ngobeni.
