North West’s Madibeng municipal manager faces ‘serious misconduct’ probe

The North West’s Madibeng local municipality council is sitting on Monday with only one item on the agenda – to suspend the municipal manager and investigate him for misconduct.

This is after he allegedly hired a contractor without following supply chain management processes.

The action against municipal manager Quiet Kgatla follows the contract termination of a service provider that won a tender to build 2 200 housing units at Damonsville.

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Termination of contract

The contractor did not turn up to do the job last year, resulting in Madibeng management deciding to terminate the contract and hire a new firm.

The new firm was appointed this year after a violent protest by residents of the area, situated near the Brits CBD.

Protesters closed the road leading to the town centre with burning barricades of tyres and rocks.

At the time the municipality confirmed that the first contractor’s contract had been terminated and that a new one was to be announced soon.

Appointment of another contractor

This was confirmed by ANC ward 21 councillor Peter Mokau who said he had received a letter about the termination of the first contractor and the appointment of the new one.

Now Kgatla is being taken to task by the council for allegedly failing to appoint the new contractor properly as he did not follow the tender process.

Kgatla, the municipal spokesperson and mayoral chief of staff Senzo Ncongolo, were not available for comment. They also had not answered queries sent on Friday and follow up requests yesterday.

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Recommendations

According to the agenda sent out to councillors in today’s meeting, it is recommended that the municipal council should resolve on instituting investigation proceedings against the accounting officer (Kgatla) subsequent to various allegations of misconduct brought to the attention of the council.

“The municipal council is furthermore recommended to consider placing the accounting officer on precautionary suspension pending finalisation of the aforementioned investigations.

“The accounting officer allegedly appointed the project unilaterally, without consultation or approval from the relevant municipal structures.”

Misconduct in the appointment

According to the council notice for the meeting, Kgatla appointed the contractor but the director of technical services was unaware of the project; there was no project manager from the municipality appointed and no consultants were engaged in accordance with regulatory requirements.

Kgatla was alleged to have committed serious acts of misconduct in the appointment of a contractor without following the supply chain management processes. It was said that the allegations against the manager were “of serious misconduct”.

The municipality also accused Kgatla of having allegedly committed financial misconduct, including orchestrating the withdrawal of R25 million from the Municipal Infrastructure Grant.

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