SA shocked by failing EC municipality where manager spent R90K on KFC

The Eastern Cape’s Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality was featured in a segment of Carte Blanche on Sunday night, and the revelations shocked and saddened many viewers, who shared their reactions.

The main town used to be called Queenstown and is now Komani. According to the show, service delivery took a nosedive after a number of smaller municipalities were amalgamated to form Enoch Mgijima in 2016.

The location of Komani in the Eastern Cape. Picture: Google Maps

The auditor-general declared he could not make any findings on the municipality, with about 68,000 residents, since few to no financial records have been kept for it since its amalgamation.

Carte Blanche discovered that large parts of the town have been left without electricity after the power network failed to be maintained for 15 years; rubbish was strewn all over; unemployment was sky high; bones and animal bodies were left rotting outside; the river was in a disgusting state; raw sewage overflowed in the township; and potholes were a mainstay of streets that had few working traffic lights.

The electricity transformers exploded in June due to their dilapidation, though the municipality tried to blame it on people switching on too many of their appliances at the same time.

Because of the power woes, the water supply became non-existent in some areas, it was also reported in June.

According to councillors the show’s long-time host Derek Watts spoke to, the town’s ANC-led municipality undercollected revenue by tens of millions and has debts of at least R85 million. Some people claimed they last received a municipal bill last year.

Municipal equipment, including waste removal trucks and earth-moving maintenance machines, bakkies and more had to be auctioned to recover some debts after the municipality didn’t defend itself in court against creditors and had a default judgment made against it.

First up: from no water and electricity to auctioning off municipal assets to pay off its debts, how did the Enoch Mgijima municipality find itself in the red? @DerekWatts finds out on #CarteBlanche. pic.twitter.com/yP9bJXi11K

— Carte Blanche (@carteblanchetv) July 22, 2018

Perhaps most scandalously, the municipal manager, Chris Magwangqana, spent R90,000 on KFC as “catering” within a few days of his appointment in January, which he defended to Watts as not being significant because the municipality had spent more money on service delivery.

On @carteblanchetv tonight:

The numbers don’t lie.

In January this year and in a matter of TWO days – just over R90000 was spent on KFC, by the Enoch Mgijima municipality which covers towns like Komani (formerly Queenstown) in the Eastern Cape.#Carteblanche pic.twitter.com/ldquCJwU5t

— Chwayitisa Futshane (@Chwayitisa) July 22, 2018

How much fried chicken does one municipality need? #CarteBlanche https://t.co/hnG91dMb3R

— Carte Blanche (@carteblanchetv) July 22, 2018

However, many councillors said the town’s many multimillion-rand projects, such as a taxi rank for R30 million, were either never finished or ended up becoming white elephants.

Magwangqana is the same man who was embroiled in a R631 million toilet scandal in Amatole in 2015, where 66,000 toilets were meant to be built but either weren’t or were built so badly that none of them was usable.

An audit report reportedly recommended criminal and disciplinary action be brought against Magwangqana; the Hawks are understood to still be investigating.

The same cash-strapped municipality’s mayor, Nokuzola Tolashe, justified spending R300,000 on a PR exercise to talk to the community because she said it would be important to explain to them what good work their local government was doing.

It turned out she was also the beneficiary of a hired Volvo SUV at a cost of R78,000 a month because the mayoral car was “in for repairs”. It had been in for repairs for at least the past six months, it emerged.

She rated her performance as mayor as eight out of 10 when asked to score herself.

She told Watts she felt the future of her municipality was bright and told him to come back in six months to be pleasantly surprised by their progress in turning things around.

Many on Twitter, however, weren’t feeling too optimistic about the prospects.

The Enoch Mgijima (Komani) Municipality issue is indeed a perfect storm. It’s heartbreaking. Can the Demarcation Board also explain why the merger happened ? #CarteBlanche

— Bang'uMhlaba (@aycawe) July 22, 2018

ANC I rest my case. The saying “…it’s our time to eat…” is messing you up #CarteBlanche pic.twitter.com/37lpz3q5x7

Read more

Finger lickin’ good charity feeds thousands of school children

— Azania Afrika (@SAYoungLion) July 22, 2018

“MORE THAN HALF THEIR INCOME SPENT ON SALARIES, 26 MILLION ON BANK CHARGES, NO ACCOUNTING SYSTEM, THE AUDITOR GENERAL COULDN’T DO HIS JOB BECAUSE THERE WERE NO DOCUMENTS, NOT EVEN BANK STATEMENTS. WELCOME TO … KOMANI.” – @DerekWatts @carteblanchetv #carteblanche

— Chwayitisa Futshane (@Chwayitisa) July 22, 2018

R90k on KFC? Go figure. #CarteBlanche

— Bang'uMhlaba (@aycawe) July 22, 2018

R78000 per month on a car hayi these grandpa's and grandma's must step down. Bahlulakele #CarteBlanche

— Unà🌻 (@MeiUnathi) July 22, 2018

… and not the brightest of cadre family members deployed. Huge lack of foresight. Their days of having KFC everyday is going. No power grid, no cooked chicken.

— CHRodger (@ch_rodger) July 22, 2018

https://twitter.com/HerbertduPlessi/status/1021096548011266048

"Finger licking good"

— Charlie Cawood (@Charli84332) July 22, 2018

https://twitter.com/jeandre_lennox/status/1021092886165835776

For incompetent parasites?

Yes.
Of course.

— Fighting the BORG. (@ChristoK5) July 22, 2018

Better run municipalities..and less political appointments will do better.

— Sifundo79 (@sifundo79) July 22, 2018

The collapse of governance in Komani is shocking #carteblanche . Mayor & Municipal Man are in denial & rate themselves very high despite the shocking state of affairs. Amalgamation & cross subsidisation of smaller towns should be revisited, #AliwalNorth is next on the list.

— Phehello (@Phehello_Makoa) July 22, 2018

#CarteBlanche Just two weeks ago. Went to the municipality to query Mama's bill. They couldn't print out a detailed statement for me to how they determined how much she owes. R6k sis paid last year disappeared on the system. Thank God for receipts.@MYANC

— Nangamso Ka NomaHlubi Koza (@KaNomaHlubi) July 22, 2018

#CarteBlanche I love KFC but clearly not as much as municipal managers

— Rodney Love (@RodneyLove4) July 22, 2018

https://twitter.com/MalengaMaluleke/status/1021097636357705728

Reckless spending in the ANC is a norm. Nothing new.😴#Carteblanche

— What I'm wearing today… (@CyberMqalo) July 22, 2018

We did a study last year of the revenue situation in the entire district. The story was sad: weak billing, accounts not delivered to corporates, creditors lining up, documents piling to the ceiling, little space for all the employees of the newly merged Municipality #CarteBlanche

— Bang'uMhlaba (@aycawe) July 22, 2018

#CarteBlanche 😲😲😲😲😲😲 Enoch Mgijima will not recover in the next 5years unless people are charged with financial misconduct and jailed… R90K on KFC is surely ridiculous!!! Public Protector, protect RSA but then again…!??

— Bandile (@bandileg) July 22, 2018

90 thousand rand of chicken his doing a good job because of that R2 add to hope donation at #KFC.. 😂😂 #CarteBlanche

— Ludwig (@tallboy_40) July 22, 2018

Queenstown Municipality is a typical example of failed leadership. Why can’t they just accept that they’ve failed & resign? Why wait for an audit to be done & endure a lengthy, costly dismissal process @carteblanchetv #CarteBlanche

— Wilson (@wilsonchifike) July 22, 2018

https://twitter.com/cloudsdrummond/status/1021110216421781506