LYDENBURG – The sheriff made another trip to Thaba Chweu Municipality (TCM) after it yet again neglected to pay its debtors.
According to a source at this governing body, the sheriff pitched up in the early hours of Tuesday. A notice of attachment which was issued in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, was served to the municipality. The plaintiff was said to be Barloworld South Africa, trading as Avis Rent a Car.
It is no secret that TCM has been renting various vehicles and bakkies from this company. In the so-called turnaround strategy, mention is also made to the lack of municipal fleet resulting in hiring from Avis. Thirteen bakkies were apparently being rented. In the strategy report, of which Steelburger/Lydenburg News has a copy, it also mentions the lack of control over fuel management.
The aim was, after the three-month “strategy”, to assist TCM to participate in provincial government’s RT Contract. This would have enabled the municipality to procure fleet to assist in reducing the cost of hiring, which amounted to R22 000 per vehicle per month.
However, it seems that this was never done. The strategy stated, “We currently do not have resources but we believe that the R220 000 paid to the service providers every month could be redirected into procurement of our own fleet”.
The sheriff was directed to attach and take into execution the movable goods of the defendant and of the same to cause to be realised by public auction, the sum of R509 875,26 plus interest at 15,5 per cent per annum.
This has been the fifth time in a few months that TCM was served with notices of attachments.
According to a reliable source, the sheriff could not attach the black ML Mercedes (the mayoral vehicle) on Tuesday. The vehicle was said to be in for a service at a Mercedes-Benz dealership.The sheriff nonetheless attached six bakkies, three trucks, four tractors and two trailers.
Not only does TCM not have two cents to rub together to pay its debtors, it was also revealed that it had to take an overdraft at the bank to pay municipal workers’ salaries.
DA Cllr Farhat Essack said that he had at a council meeting explicitly warned against the rental of vehicles for the past two years, which caused unnecessary financial strain and was also not budgeted for. Essack insisted that simple business principles be applied whereby the municipality’s own vehicles are purchased instead of ridiculous and exuberant amounts be spent on rentals.
He was dismayed that neither the CFO nor municipal manager seemed to apply the standard business common sense, and he was trying for two years to get them to realise this. Instead officials at TCM failed dismally.
Essack pointed to how these rental vehicles were used by employees for private purposes and by policies parties at taxpayers’ expense. “The Auditor General’s report further confirms that the municipality has mastered the art of wasteful expenditure.”
He said that it came as no surprise to him that salaries had been paid from resources other than their own. “Last month it was kept very hush-hush when they were paid from the MIG grant. For TCM to use overdraft facilities to pay councillors’ salaries comes as no surprise from an institution that is bankrupt.”
The newspaper sent through several queries to the municipal manager, Mr Godfrey Nkosi, with regard to both the attachment and the overdraft obtained for the payment of salaries. Nkosi did not respond to any of these.
