Capricorn District Municipality (CDM) is neither dysfunctional nor in distress, Executive Mayor John Mpe informed a media briefing at the municipality’s administrative head office in the city on Monday.
“Speculation that is doing the rounds in the public space about the role of CDM in the VBS Mutual Bank (VBS) saga and a report that was released by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) which classifies CDM as ‘dysfunctional and in distress’ is a cause for concern as it makes severe negative perceptions about CDM’s financial management, internal controls and good governance,” Mpe said.
“The report refers to CDM as one of the municipalities in the country that needs urgent intervention on the basis of a deposit made to the VBS which was later withdrawn. Its context is that CDM made a R60 million deposit with VBS in January 2016 and after due consideration and alleviation of risk of loss, the money was withdrawn in June 2016, thus saving CDM from any loss,” Mpe said and added that the new council immediately took action against those that facilitated the unlawful deposit. Replying to a question from Polokwane Observer, Mpe said that the municipality took no action against the then Executive Mayor, Gilbert Kganyago, who allegedly authorised the deposit. “It is the competency of the ANC who deployed the Executive Mayor, to take action,” he said.
Mpe reckoned that it is unfortunate that the report classified CDM as dysfunctional only on that basis.
“CDM is one of the best performing municipalities in terms of financial management and good governance. This is confirmed by unqualified audit opinions for the last four financial years and tremendous improvement on MIG spending, which has even drawn the attention of the Premier and declared CDM the best performing district in the province in terms of financial management. CDM owes no debts to any of the government utilities and has retained its Grade 5 status for the 2017/2018 financial year, which is mainly determined by a municipality’s total income. We are therefore surprised that a municipality with such performance could be listed as dysfunctional and distressed,” Mpe concluded and added that CDM had requested Cogta to provide clarity regarding the meaning of dysfunctional municipality during June, but that no reply has been received as yet.
Cogta Spokesperson, Musa Zondi could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Story & photo: BARRY VILJOEN
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