ANC threatens to act against rogue deployees in govt

The Limpopo ANC has threatened to take harsh action against deployees who produce poor audit outcomes in provincial departments, districts and local municipalities – but when that happens, the economic, environment and tourism department won’t be affected.

This comes after the department outclassed others at the 2022-23 audit outcomes by scoring four clean audits.

Under MEC Rodgers Monama, the department also secured clean audits in three of its subsidiaries, the Limpopo Gambling Board, Risima Housing Finance and Agribusiness.

On top of that, the national department of tourism announced Limpopo as the 2022-23 tourist destination of choice, outclassing strong contenders such as Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga.

Speaking after the announcement, Monama, who is in Singapore on an official trip, singled out three things – hard work, dedication and teamwork – as the secret for his outstanding achievement.

“Year in and year out, premier (Stan) Mathabatha calls on us to go the extra mile in order to produce clean audits,” he said during an interview.

“I’m happy to say his call has not fallen on deaf ears.

“This is an unprecedented achievement in terms of the accountability ecosystem because corporate governance is the only legacy government can bequeath to the future generation.

Through teamwork, we promise Limpopo residents that the sky is the limit.”

In his state of the province address (Sopa), Mathabatha branded Limpopo a disclaimer-free province.

But this was not achieved, with many departments having received qualified and unqualified audit opinions from the auditor-general.

For instance, the Mopani district municipality, which had to deal with more than 20 years of poor spending and financial mismanagement in municipal infrastructure grants, ended up producing disclaimer audit outcomes for three consecutive years.

Last year, the ANC in Limpopo, supported by the ANC Youth League, threatened to take action against its deployees who fail to spend all their allocated budgets.

The party also called on MECs and mayors in the 11 provincial departments and 27 local and district municipalities to pull up their socks or stand to face harsh action from the provincial administration and the ANC.

The call was made last year in September, but the question will remains: will the ruling party live up to its threats or is its stance is just another political ploy to garner votes for next year’s elections?

Speaking to The Citizen during a recent media briefing, ANC provincial secretary Reuben Madazhe said all government deployees were expected to discharge their duties to the best of their ability every financial year.

“Our people expect better and so is the ruling party,” he said.

“We should at all times become visible in communities, complete projects and deliver basic services such as water, road infrastructure, electricity connection, housing and better primary healthcare and education. We must also ensure we account for every cent we spent in our quest to deliver top notch services.”

For those who produce poor audit outcomes and end up returning money to National Treasury, Madazhe said “they must just know that we are not smiling and that heads are going to roll”.