R9M spent on ‘sport’? – SAMWU
Greater Giyani Municipality has disputed claims by the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu), that it has spent close to R9 million on a sports centre at Dzumeri village which was never built.
LIMPOPO – Samwu staged a sit-in since 6 April demanding the municipality hire a permanent municipal manager (MM), fill the vacant posts of four directors, and explain how it had allegedly spent nearly R9 million on the project which was never implemented.
The sit-in has affected the delivery of services such as collection of rubbish bins in and around town, street maintenance, and services at Giyani vehicle testing ground among other services rendered by the municipality.
“The sports centre in question is said to have cost close to R9 million, yet it was never in use. We even went to the site to check and found nothing there despite the municipality having spent money on it,” explained Samwu Secretary, Ivy N’wandzule.
She added they also want the municipality to appoint a permanent MM to account on the functionality of the municipality. “There’s a delay in a number of services, especially within the housing department where grants are delayed due to the absence of an accounting officer,” she said.
The municipality, however, disputes the accusation that close to R9 million was spent on the sports centre thus far as only R6,5 million was budgeted for phase one of the project, which is valued at R18,5 million.
“If indeed we had spent that kind of money on the project in question, the Auditor General (AG) would have picked it up.
“It would have been wasteful expenditure for us to have spent R9 million on a project that did not exist,” the acting Municipal Manager, Precious Mathebula, explained.
Mathebula said the amount of money spent on the project is less than R6 million, and it was due to the confusion that happened between the community and the members of the royal family who had different opinions on where the sport centre should be built.
“Remember, the contractor had already started working on the site when he was stopped.
“This had some financial implications, not to mention the cost of the designs that had already been done at the site,” she explained.
“When you calculate those costs, including the borehole, the contractor had already drilled when he was removed from the said site, it will give you a figure that is less than R6 million, which is justifiable when you consider the fact that we had to move from the site that had already been worked on to a new site,” he said.
On the issue of vacant posts, Mathebula said the municipality had already advertised and interviewed some of the candidates.
“In one of the posts the municipality managed to find a good candidate, but unfortunately we had to re-advertise as he didn’t meet some of the specifications required by the Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (CoGHSTA) so he was rejected,” he said.
“The issue of appointing a permanent municipal manager is currently in court, therefore we cannot talk about it now nor make an appointment.
“This, however, does not necessarily mean there are services which have stopped, we have people who act on those positions,” Mathebula concluded.
