Lolo Madonsela
It seems the rain will keep pouring for the embattled AbaQulusi Municipality.
The municipality currently faces a loss of almost R4-million, allegedly stolen by an official meant to have been in charge of depositing money into the bank last week.
The official was reportedly arrested on Monday and a case of fraud has since been opened.
Organisations and residents have expressed disappointment with the handling of finances within the municipality.
Acting Mayor, Mncedisi Maphisa lashed out at so-called ‘corruption tendencies’ and promised that anyone who may have conspired with the suspect would also be brought to book.
“It is with great dismay and disappointment in our system, and that within its employ, that I today report to the citizens of AbaQulusi about the act of theft which has taken place within our municipality. It has been reported to me by the Acting Municipal Manager, Mr Z.T. Shongwe, that an amount of R3 918 716,39 has been transferred from our municipal accounts into the account of a municipal official [whose name cannot be revealed] as the matter is still under investigation.
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“The municipality has acquired the bank statements of the accused official and has managed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the suspected official did indeed transfer the above-mentioned amount into her personal Old Mutual account. It has further come to our attention that it is not only this amount which has been stolen by the accused; she has been pilfering many minor transactions dating as far back as 2018,” said Maphisa.
He further stated a banking provider had frozen an amount of R2 596 547,25 found in the suspect’s account, which was in the process of being recovered.
“I wish to urge all citizens of AbaQulusi to hold hands with us, in getting to the bottom of this matter. I appeal to anyone who may have information to please contact SAPS and supply us with any information which may be of assistance, as we try and solve this ordeal.” In pledging himself to ensuring the suspect(s) involved were caught, Maphisa said he had moved for a full forensic investigation into municipal finances from the year 2018 to date. “We mean business as the IFP-led Government, and we will not tolerate any pinch or sniff of corruption. The founder and president emeritus of our party, His Excellency Prince MG [Mangosuthu] Buthelezi has served the nation with integrity and honesty, with a proven track record of no corruption and clean governance throughout his tenure. We will continue to ensure that services are provided to our people efficiently and effectively, and further see to it that we get to the bottom of any activity of dishonesty taking place within the municipality.”
Maphisa stated that although the latest incident threatened to cripple the municipality’s finances, he was not anticipating any inconveniences. “The recovery being processed [by the banking service provider] for the money to be reversed back into our account, will assist in bringing about balance and restore our financial status partially. We have also engaged in a process of applying to the suspect’s pension fund, for her pension to be given to the municipality in order to try and settle the remaining amount she had already spent. We are not anticipating any major inconveniences as a result of the embezzlement, as God has favoured us in some of the money being returned. We however will see if there are any further recovery avenues we can explore to ensure we maximise the amount which can be returned to us.”
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Some residents commented they were happy the suspect had been arrested and hoped those implicated would face the law. “We worry when such things happen, because our municipality cannot deliver services properly because of its current state of finances. We are close to a shutdown of services, as we see challenges like lack of refuse removal and uncleanliness of water,” said resident, Bheka Mtshali. He added there was a need for the community to come together, in a bid to ensure the municipality was run smoothly and accounting officials were held accountable. “We must take the space and lead ourselves, since the municipality is failing us. Since 2016, there is no developmental item we can identify. We need to stand up and take action to ensure all these matters we are faced with in our municipality are addressed accordingly, because this affects us as citizens and as taxpayers.”
Both the ANC and the DA have called on the KwaZulu-Natal MEC of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Sipho Hlomuka to implement Section 106 of Municipal Systems Act, which states that if deemed necessary, a person or people must be deployed by the MEC to investigate allegations of maladministration, fraud, corruption or any other serious malpractices, ‘when it occurs or is occurring in a municipality’. “Last time, when we exposed corruption with that stolen generator, they [the IFP] said we were politicking, but we did indicate we were not and there were corruption matters yet to arise. This is what we were talking about, and there are still more to come,” said Secretary of the ANC in the Mzala Nxumalo Region, Zakes Buthelezi.
DA Caucus Leader in the Zululand Region, Sibusiso Nkosi commented the party welcomed the swift action by SAPS, in apprehending the suspect.
“The DA has consistently and constantly called for tight financial control in the municipality for the past two years. It’s quite disappointing that while the people of AbaQulusi suffer a lot with lack of service delivery, such as grass cutting, cut water and filthy in town, there some officials who have audacity to rob the poor. We call upon [MEC Hlomuka] to release a Section 106 forensic report, in order to deal with deep-rooted maladministration, fraud and corruption in this municipality.”
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