PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Bitou municipality's leadership has embarked on a house-cleaning operation by calling on an independent forensic investigator to look into claims of maladministration and misconduct by senior officials.
As a first step the municipality has placed municipal manager Thabo Ndlovu and head of corporate services Vuyokazi Mbelani on precautionary suspension.
Bitou DA caucus leader Bill Nel said this decision was taken during a closed council meeting on 6 December.
“Council further resolved to appoint an independent forensic investigator to investigate alleged maladministration and misconduct by senior officials,” he said, adding that the investigation had to be completed within 30 days from the suspension.
“Council also approached Western Cape minister of local government Anton Bredell to second experienced officials to Bitou to act in a number of vacancies that have arisen over the past few months," Nel said.
Series of political woes
This follows a series of political issues in Bitou in recent weeks including the ANC's failed motion of no confidence against Peter Lobese on 5 December.
The ANC claimed the move was partly due to a lack of service delivery and very little leadership from the mayor.
Other contributing factors, the party claimed, were Lobese spending about R60 000 a month on a luxury SUV while waiting for an insurance investigation following an accident involving his official mayoral vehicle in Port Elizabeth, as well as an expense of more than R100 000 a month on security at the mayor's Kwanokuthula home.
Lobese, however, denied the claims labelling the move as a “cheap political stunt”.
Following the defeated motion, Bitou subregion coordinator Putco Mapitiza said in a statement that the ANC approached the DA councillors and urged them to support the motion as Lobese had “repeatedly proven not be a fit and proper person to hold any position of trust anywhere”.
“The fact is, Lobese will stop at nothing but continue to squander ratepayers’ money that is meant to improve service delivery…
"While the DA takes every opportunity to criticise perceived or real profligacy by their political opponents, their deeds belie the purported high moral ground when their own are involved.
"The hypocrisy of DA councillors and its leadership reveal the corrupt soul of the party,” Mapitiza said.
'ANC will stop at nothing'
He added that he wanted to assure the people of Bitou that the ANC would “stop at nothing to fight this scourge of corruption”.
In a statement on the DA’s Facebook page, constituency chair Liz Mundell said the DA and AUF entered into a coalition in May following the ANC/AUF coalition that after only 10 months already saw “massive corruption and looting”.
“When in opposition, the DA councillors had objected to all items of wasteful expenditure and maladministration.
"They reported all issues to the DA provincial leadership and called on the Western Cape government to investigate.”
Mundell further said it was common cause that the expenses incurred by Lobese started under the ANC-led coalition.
“Minister Donald Grant warned at recent public meetings that the DA would follow due process to put a stop to the bleeding of public funds in Bitou.
"This has now happened. Because of our concern about the high cost of security for the mayor, the DA had called for a security assessment by the police.
"This has eventually been received with recommendations on cost savings in this area. When these are implemented there will be considerable cost savings.”
Excessive spending curtailed
Regarding the expenses relating to the mayor’s vehicles, Mundell said the Western Cape MEC for finance Ivan Meyer had contacted the CFO and instructed him to put a stop to the excessive expenditure incurred by hiring the mayoral car.
“He (Meyer) addressed the Bitou council meeting on 5 December in a hard-hitting presentation that laid bare the true depth of maladministration and corruption caused by ANC cadres.
"He was also brutally frank when he told the mayor that his lavish expenditure must stop," said Mundell.
About the suspension of the senior officials, Mundell said that one of their most serious concerns was the lack of delivery to Bitou’s communities as “evidenced by gross underspending of grants intended for services to our communities”.
“This situation comes about because of the appointments to these senior positions by the ANC coalition of incompetent and corrupt cadres.
"The underspending of grants was not obvious to our councillors due to manipulated financial information being presented to council by the officials.
"We are confident that the forensic investigation will expose these officials and enable council to take appropriate action.”
ARTICLE: YOLANDÉ STANDER, KNYSNA-PLETT HERALD CORRESPONDENT
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