GMM wants to stop this vending company

A terminated service provider’s alleged selling of illegal electricity is causing Govan Mbeki Municipality to lose much-needed revenue.

Mayor Nhlakanipho Zuma revealed this at the council’s year-end meeting on December 6.

According to Zuma, Ideal Prepaid (Pty), appointed in 2019 to sell electricity on behalf of the municipality, is still selling power despite its contract being terminated.

The appointment of Ideal Prepaid for 36 months is one of the reasons Felani Mndebele, the former municipal manager, was suspended and later fired.

The municipality claimed that Mndebele was in contravention of the municipal supply chain management regulations.

He also did not have the minutes of the Bid Evaluation Committee or the Bid Adjudication Committee when appointing Ideal Prepaid.

The High Court later dismissed the claim, and the CCMA instructed the municipality to pay Mndebele R1,67 million for his unlawful dismissal.

Zuma said the council had decided to terminate the company’s contract because the correct processes were not followed when the firm was appointed.

“The contract that was signed was illegal. We advertised for a revenue enhancement strategy service, but got a rental agreement.

“We don’t want to rent anything; we want to buy a service that will assist the municipality in bringing in revenue. This didn’t happen, and we ended up with a serious loss of revenue,” said Zuma.

He said the municipality lost about R9m.

The mayor said they took the matter to court to set aside the contract, but the process took too long, and the municipality continued to lose money.

Zuma said this was the same reasoning applied when Mndebele’s contract was terminated.

“We decided to part ways with our municipal manager, Felani Mndebele, because we were unable to continue spending more money on his court case.”

Zuma said the council should take a legal route to stop Ideal Prepaid from selling electricity on behalf of the municipality.