MBOMBELA – The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs’ (Cogta) hearing in front of the Select Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) was recently postponed because the department’s representatives were deemed ill-prepared.
The hearing was supposed to deal with the department’s 2012/13 financial year, however, it started off with committee member Mr Collen Sedibe, EFF member of the provincial legislature (MPL), objecting to the acting CFO Mr Nyiko Mchavi presenting the report instead of the accounting officer, HOD Mr Cain Chunda. Chunda and MEC for Cogta, Ms Refilwe Mtsweni, made the request since the
HOD had been in his position for only two months, while Mchavi stood in for the CFO Mr Dumisani Shipalana who was on leave.
A caucus saw the committee agree that Mchavi may present the report. “You can go in and listen to the CFO, but I am not going to,” Sedibe said while excusing himself from the room.
Yet when the meeting eventually recommenced, members discovered that previous Scopa resolutions were not attached to the report. Mchavi said he had only seen the report on the morning of the meeting. Commitee chairman and ANC MPL Mr Sibusiso Malaza said this made him doubt whether Mchavi understood it. “You agreed to take the responsibility of presenting the document. Do you know how embarrassing it is to send a department back? No doubt the MEC can run a department, but she cannot be failed by you in administration.
“We have problems with the municipalities. Can we have faith in you to lead?” Malaza asked. Committee member and former MEC for Cogta Mr Simon Skhosana said he pitied his replacement.
He lay the problem at the door of Shipalana, whom he said had compiled the report but was absent during the hearing. He warned Mtsweni that he was arrogant.
He told Lowvelder that as MEC he had been able to control Shipalana, and for that reason the department had received a clean audit from the Auditor General in 2013/14. The department would not comment on Skhosana’s personal views.
Committee member Mr Cleopas Maunye, Bushbuckridge Residents Association (BRA) MPL, said the MEC must provide leadership. “The report tells us that they are not taking us seriously. You are wasting our time.”
Maunye told this publication that a similar shoddy report had been presented at the portfolio committee meeting last week. He added that they had confidence in the MEC. Mtsweni gave her word that this would never happen again. A decision was made to reschedule the department’s hearing for it to elaborate on issues highlighted in the Scopa report.
