Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana addresses the Mangaung Metro council members. Photo: Supplied
Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality councillors have accused Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana of deploying people with “bad records”, following the appointment of two officials who were either suspended or fired from their previous top posts.
Monday’s special council sitting was convened to introduce the two officials and discuss progress made by the national government’s team sent in April to turn around the unstable metro, which has been marred by corruption and poor service delivery.
The six-month term of the national team, led by Cogta-appointed acting municipal manager Tebogo Motlashuping, came to an end last month.
On 1 November, Treasury sent fired ex-SABC CFO Gugu Malaza and Mxolisi Nkosi, previously accused of corruption, to the troubled Free State metro as a cabinet representative and member of the national intervention team respectively.
Malaza is replacing cabinet representative Paul Maseko, whom Godongwana asserted was ill, much to the disgruntlement of some councillors who remarked that Maseko had indicated to them that he was fine and well.
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According to Godongwana, the duo’s services were procured from a private company, adding that he was assured that proper procurement processes were followed.
He told the councillors that his department had the constitutional prerogative to deploy skills as part of the national intervention in struggling municipalities.
Godongwana and Treasury’s chief director of Local Government Budget Analysis Jan Hattingh were at pains explaining to the councillors that Malaza and Nkosi were “true bureaucrats”, who were never found guilty by a court of law.
Malaza, also former CFO at the SABC, was suspended by Ekurhuleni Metro while CFO in 2018.
The metro said at the time that her suspension was due to a pending investigation for her non-disclosure of information about her dismissal by the SABC over alleged procurement and financial irregularities.
She landed the CFO job at Ekurhuleni after she was fired by the public broadcaster in 2014.
In 2019, Ekhurhuleni announced that it reached “an amicable decision” to part ways with Malaza, ending her disciplinary process.
Nkosi was a municipal manager at northern KwaZulu-Natal’s uMkhanyakude District Municipality when he was suspended in August last year, over “damning reports by the Auditor-General”.
The district municipality said it had noted “regression” in its audit outcomes from a qualified audit opinion in the past two financial years, to an adverse audit opinion in the 2019/2020 financial year.
“To exacerbate the negative impact of the said outcome, the municipality received eight disparaging cases of material irregularities raised by the AG… due to a lack of management action in 2019/2020, which was led by Mr Mxolisi Nkosi.
“The material irregularities are due to a lack of management action in 2019/2020, which was led by Mr Mxolisi Nkosi,” the municipality said at the time.
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Other media reports detailed Nkosi’s history of alleged corruption, including at Pietermaritzburg-headquartered Msunduzi Municipality, where the council’s 2016 resolution saw him kicked out as a municipal manager for allegedly using proceeds from a R300 million infrastructure upgrade to line his pockets.
African National Congress (ANC) councillor Chabedi Rampai asked why services from a private company were procured to run a public institution.
“Where in the world have you ever seen a private company run a public institution? I am going to subject this to a legal opinion… We are told we are not supposed to tell a private company what to do? At the expense of the public’s money? Please, let’s vet these people before they mess with Mangaung’s public purse.”
Some of the councillors alleged that the CFO was removed last month, to make way for “ANC looting” ahead of the party’s December national conference to be held in Gauteng.
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“Changes are not necessary for now. First, we had the province bring an intervention team, they left without leaving a base report. Now it’s cabinet representatives by Malaza and Nkosi who have bad records, as councillors said.
“Gugu was expelled by SABC in 2014, Ekurhuleni Metro suspended her too, Nkosi was a municipal manager in KZN and was suspended, and then you bring them here to Mangaung? Please be fair to us minister, change is not necessary,” said the ANC’s Patrick Monyakoane.
In a no holds barred address, Deputy Mayor Mapaseka Mothibi-Nkoane told the council that she refused to attend the first meeting after Malaza and Nkosi began work at Mangaung.
She said she turned down the invitation because “procedures were not followed” by National Treasury.
“Speaker, make it clear in your recommendations that we are not changing anything, the CFO must remain because otherwise, we will regress. Minister, what we are dealing with is not allowed to happen. Yes, you say these are allegations, but let the team here finish work and hand us a proper report.
“Once we tamper with work we won’t finish. None of you two ministers [of finance and Cogta] took time to come sit in at least one council meeting. If you did, we wouldn’t be here today. I rejected that invite because when these two first arrived, I didn’t want to sit in a meeting with people that just arrived without our knowledge. I am only meeting them here today. If the mayor allowed it, I won’t be part of it.”
Cogta Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was absent from the special council meeting.
The council met as Mayor Mxolisi Siyonzana faces another motion of no confidence, both from his own party and opposition benches.
The ANC in the province took a decision this month to remove Siyonzana, his deputy Mothibi-Nkoane and speaker Stefani Lockman-Naidoo.
The council is rocked by factionalism and ANC infighting that has negatively affected the functioning of the municipality over the years.
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Officials raided council coffers over time, through employment of costly ghost workers, cadre deployment and tender grabbing, leading to the crippling of services.
Residents took to the streets, protesting the lack of services such as water and electricity supply, and waste removal.
An unmaintained and broken sewer system spills raw sewerage into the streets of Mangaung townships on a daily basis.
Godongwana assured the councillors that the political instability was being “addressed successfully”.
“Within the ruling party, there’s been a lot of instability which spilt over into the functioning of the municipality, I can safely say, standing here, that those political matters are being addressed successfully and that will contribute very well to the sustainability of this municipality.
“I am happy with that progress. And that is reflected in the governance of this municipality – structures are meeting – mayoral troika, council etc are functioning. These governance issues are an important indicator of stability.”
He told FF Plus councillor Elizabeth Snyman Van Deventer that as far as he knew, there won’t be a dissolution of the council or the firing of the mayoral duo and the speaker.
“There’s no plan to dissolve the council, maybe it’s being whispered somewhere in the corridors that I don’t know about, but there’s no basis for thinking about a dissolution, we’re beginning to work together.
“When I addressed you the last time, I said we didn’t intend to be in Mangaung forever. We do not have a good capacity to be in every municipality. Let’s find each other, I would like to pack and go – let’s get the right managers, get the system right, and satisfy ourselves that now we have a team that can run the municipality.”
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