It has been confirmed that the Executive Mayor of Emalahleni, Cllr Lindiwe Ntshalintshali got new wheels.
The council did indeed buy a new Audi Q7 for the mayor to travel in.
Amidst Eskom breathing down the municipality’s neck for payments and threatening to interrupt electricity to the municipality, service account problems and infrastructure that needs desperate fixing, the council somehow wangled a new car for the mayor.
“The vehicle which has been bought for the use of the Executive Mayor, Cllr Lindiwe Ntshalintshali has been budgeted for, and the item was taken to council and during the Izimbizo two weeks ago where the item was presented to communities. There were no objections in council and during Izimbizo,” Mr Kingdom Mabuza, municipal spokesperson said.
He said the vehicle which is the property or asset of the municipality is worth R710 000, and the provincial treasurer has approved a budget of R938 000.
Mabuza said the vehicle is a working tool and does not belong to the executive mayor. It is an asset which belongs to the municipality.
“It must be noted that the current vehicle is out of the maintenance plan and on numerous occasions the vehicle had breakdowns, and the executive mayor had to be rescued. It is costly for the municipality to maintain the vehicle in its current condition,” Mabuza said.
After several council sittings and debating it was decided to put the purchase on ice.
But not before Cllr Naritha Naidu, Democratic Alliance Caucus Leader in Emalahleni Local Council picked up that the purchase of the mayor’s vehicle falls under two vote numbers from two different sources of income that when combined form the R1.5 million that they claim was saved’ from the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) projects that were reduced.
Two votes numbers were created of R1 300 000 (vote no 1005/05/6/02/0333) which was a savings funded from loans and R200 000 (vote no 1005/05/6/03/0302) was a saving funded from municipal own funds.
During a council meeting on February 23 former municipal manager Mr Theo van Vuuren explained that during the approval of the roll-over adjustment budget in September 2016, savings were identified from some projects to fund the budget for the mayor’s car which amounted to R1 500 000.
“An adjustment budget was prepared for tabling for February and it was subsequently tabled in the municipal council on February 23. The adjustment budget consisted of the capital and operational budget. Included in the capital budget was the budget of R1 500 000 for the mayor’s car. No adjustment was made on the mayor’s car budget and has been kept the same. An instruction was issued by the mayor to put on hold the procurement of the car, until the cash flow of the municipality improves,” he said.
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