LIMPOPO – The municipal manager of the Thulamela Municipality, Hlengani Maluleke, was placed under precautionary suspension last Monday.
The decision to suspend him was taken during a special council meeting earlier the same day. The municipality’s senior manager of planning, Masala Makumule, was appointed as acting municipal manager.
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Maluleke was given seven days to furnish the municipal council with reasons why he should not be suspended.
Maluleke and the former Thulamela mayor, Councillor Avhashoni Tshifhango, appeared in court on February 8 on charges relating to a R30m investment made in the now-liquidated VBS Mutual Bank.
The two were released on bail of R30 000 each and the case was postponed to May 24, when they will have to appear again in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Polokwane.
The secretary of the ANC in the Vhembe region, Rudzani Ludere, said the region welcomed the suspension of the municipal manager. “We think it is a step in the right direction in terms of rooting out all forms of corruption and malfeasance.”
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Councillor Khakhathi Tshisikule of the International Revelation Congress (IRC) said his organisation accepted the suspension, pending the investigations.
The convenor of the South African Youth Council in Vhembe, Ernest Gogome, said they were delighted that Maluleke had been suspended. “We want his disciplinary hearing to be fast-tracked,” he said.
“We can’t have a municipal manager who is so arrogant to his employer that he even threatens them with a court order, forgetting that he was deployed.”
The spokesperson of the Thulamela Municipality, Nndwamato Tshiila, confirmed that the council had taken a resolution to suspend the municipal manager until the investigation into his conduct is finalised.
