“The municipality is not buying light duty vehicles with money destined for housing.”
Mr Kingdom Mabuza, municipal spokesperson scolded the Democratic Alliance (DA) for misrepresenting facts to suit, what he called their campaign to discredit the Executive Mayor of Emalahleni, Cllr Lindiwe Ntshalintshali.
The DA claimed that the local council has resolved to use a R13.6-million Human Settlement Grant for the purchase of 17 light duty vehicles (LDVs).
“This is despite having a 45 000 housing backlog in the municipality,” said Cllr Naritha Naidu, DA Caucus Leader in the Emalahleni Local Council.
“Housing in Emalahleni is a huge issue and in August this year, residents embarked on a violent protest that saw Cllr L Ntshalintshali, former Municipal Manager Mr Theo van Vuuren and Human Settlements MEC Speedy Mashilo, being escorted out of Lynnville Stadium amid gunfire,” Cllr Naidu said.
“Cllr Ntshalintshali is quoted in a daily newspaper as stating that it was the non-payment of services by residents that was hindering the municipality from constructing 1 441 houses for deserving beneficiaries, instead of stating that the money was being funnelled towards filling financial holes in the municipality that she created.”
“The roll over for the 2016/2017 financial year amounting to R13 692 134 on capital projects was transferred to the 2017/2018 financial year capital projects in terms of Section 19 of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA). Simply put, it means that this conditional grant, which was received from the Human Settlement Department and was unspent, had to be transferred to the next budget year, and those monies cannot be used for anything else other than for housing. Housing is the responsibility of provincial and national governments, whatever is given to municipalities can only be used for that specific purpose which is housing,” Mabuza explained.
He said Cllr Ntshalintshali has no authority over the conditional grant from the Human Settlement Department.
Cllr Naidu said in a recent council meeting it was revealed that between July 2016 and June 2017, a total of 83 vehicle accidents were reported to the municipality’s insurance. Only 33 of these cases where referred for disciplinary action.
‘The municipality cannot impulsively drag every driver to a disciplinary hearing when there is an accident. Not all incidents mean the municipal drivers acted negligently. Those cases which were referred to the disciplinary hearing are of drivers who were suspected of having been reckless,” Mabuza said.
Mabuza said the municipality initially budgeted to buy a grader but after an undertaking from the office of the Premier David Mabuza, to supply the municipality with two graders, it was then decided that the R4 200 000 which was budgeted for the grader be redirected to purchase the vehicles.
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