Thabazimbi spends R13m on parties’ legal battles

Councillors, municipal executives and officials at the beleaguered Thabazimbi local municipality in Limpopo have allegedly blown over R13 million on legal fees to lawyers during political battles that lasted for 20 months.

The municipality has been inundated with court processes and interdicts since January 2023.

Thabazimbi officials use money meant for service delivery

Chair for parliament’s select committee on cooperative governance and public administration Mxolisi Kaunda said yesterday his committee was alarmed by the inclination of the various groups within the municipality to use resources that could be used for service delivery to pay their legal fees.

Kaunda was in Thabazimbi with the committee to assess the council after a notice by the Limpopo’s executive committee (exco) to the National Council of Provinces’ (NCOP) plan to invoke Section 139 (1) (c), of the constitution to dissolve the troubled Thabazimbi municipal council.

According to the section, the dissolution only takes effect within 14 days from the date of receipt of the notice unless set aside by a Cabinet member of the NCOP before the expiry date.

The expiry date is tomorrow.

After the assessment, the committee will present its findings to the NCOP.

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Municipality has 15 cases are various courts

Kaunda said the millions paid to lawyers robbed the residents of Thabazimbi of financial resources that could have been better invested in quality service delivery.

He said that since 2021, the municipality has had 15 court cases from the regional courts up to the Constitutional Court in Bloemfontein.

He said the provincial department of cooperative governance, human settlement and traditional affairs would investigate the payments in detail.

A source in the Waterberg region claimed councillors and officials “allegedly hatched a plot to connive with lawyers to milk municipal funds through legal representations in courts”.

“Some allegedly even made claims that did not exist in order to loot because the municipality did not have legitimate accounting officers. But now, heads will roll.”

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