DA asks for municipal manager who ‘invested R110m with VBS’ to be fired

The DA has written to Limpopo’s MEC for cooperative governance, Jerry Ndou, to ask him to immediately expel the municipal manager of the Makhuduthamaga municipality, Nancy Rampedi, after she allegedly approved more than R110 million to be invested into the now liquidated VBS mutual bank when she was the chief financial officer at the Moretele municipality in North West in the 2017/18 financial year.

The DA’s premier candidate for Limpopo, Jacques Smalle, said they were deeply concerned that Rampedi would sign off on similarly illegal investments in the rural Makhuduthamaga municipality.

“Moretele municipality has contravened all the Treasury regulations by diverting R50 million from a grant meant for water infrastructure to bank it with the bank under her watch in 2017/2018 financial year,” said Smalle.

“Prior to that, the municipality invested over R60 million into the same bank but the money was recovered and returned into the municipal account.

“To compound the matter, the municipality was embroiled in allegations of serious maladministration before joining Makhuduthamaga municipality as the CFO in 2017. Before joining Moretele municipality, Rampedi was given a golden handshake of over R2.7 million at the Elias Motsoaledi municipality after she was suspended for failing to submit the financial documents and meet the auditor-general’s requirements.”

They said it was clear that Rampedi had a “very bad record when it comes to financial management and accountability, therefore she deserves to be removed from her position with immediate effect”.

Makhuduthamaga was suffering from a huge service delivery backlog where residents were still sharing water with animals “therefore they cannot afford one more delay in getting the basic services that they deserve”.

“The DA urges MEC Ndou to take actions against Rampedi and further probe the financial affairs of this municipality and stop any illegal transactions and investments,” Smalle added.

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