Mopani district municipality appoints new municipal manager

In an effort to improve audits and enhance the rate of service delivery, a Limpopo district municipality, which has a record of performing dismally in the books of the auditor-general (AG), has appointed a municipal manager who is known for thinking on his feet and implementing consequence management.

The Mopani district municipality has appointed former Ba-Phalaborwa chief financial officer Tshepo Mogano as its new municipal manager.

The municipality confirmed the appointment and said he was appointed on a five-year term with effect from on Wednesday.

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From 2008 to 2012, Mogano worked as an accountant for a number of municipalities, where his role was to assist improving disclaimer audits, as required by AG Tsakani Maluleke.

These municipalities included Polokwane, Thulamela, Lephalale, Blouberg, Greater Giyani and Ba-Phalaborwa.

Mogano’s qualifications include a masters degree in business administration (MBA) from Stellenbosch Business School, an advanced management programme from Wits Business School, a postgraduate diploma in finance and accounting from the University of South Africa, a BCompt degree from the University of Limpopo and an MBA from Maastricht University in the Netherlands.

Mogano started his career as a trainee chartered accountant at CorpMD Inc.

“I then joined EOH as a principal consultant and later moved to join Nexia SAB&T as a senior accountant and auditor, before joining Ba-Phalaborwa local municipality as chief accountant financial reporting.”

Mogano joins the Mopani municipality at a time when it is faced with serious problems.

It performed dismally on municipal spending and accounting in the past financial year.

Mopani was the only municipality of the province’s 27 which received a disclaimer audit opinion from the office of the AG.

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“I am up to the task and believe with the good team of professional men and women I have in place, we will steer this ship in the right direction, because team work always wins,” added Mogano.

Meanwhile, calls are mounting at the Maruleng local municipality in Hoedspruit for council to prioritise the appointment of senior personnel.

The chief financial officer resigned in February and the acting chief financial officer is allegedly facing allegations of fraud.

The corporate services director resigned in January, the spatial planning and community services director’s and the municipal manager’s terms expire this year.