Troubled Mangaung pays law firm R1m to translate documents, ignoring own legal staff

Free State’s Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality has spent almost R1 million in two months paying lawyers to translate by-laws, even though it has an inhouse legal team hired to do the job.

Bloemfontein law firm Molefi Thoabala Inc billed Mangaung almost R1 million in February alone.

Sources at the metro said no one has seen the translated by-laws.

Documents and invoices seen by The Citizen show that the payments were approved by head of cooperative services David Nkaiseng, who was placed on cautionary suspension for allegedly spearheading the “hiring” of ghost workers at the metro.

Bloemfontein law firm Molefi Thoabala Attorneys made almost R200,000 in December last year.

In February, two invoices of R685,374 and R590,325 labelled “translation of by-laws into Sesotho” and “development of policies” respectively, were submitted in February. The R590,000 invoice has been paid while the other amount is yet to be paid out.

In December, the law firm was paid R190,000 for “translating by-laws into Afrikaans”. According to the documentation, the service was requested by head of legal department Charlie Naidoo while Nkaiseng authorised the payment.

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A member of council, who refused to be named for fear of reprisal, said even if the services of a law firm was sought, the rule dictated that lawyers be rotated.

“We’ve never seen these documents in our archives, so who are they translating for? It’s just a way to get money out of the metro.

“Even the custodians of by-laws in council haven’t seen the translated work. There is no specified by-laws translated in those documents because they do not exist.”

‘False narrative’

Naidoo, the head of legal department, told The Citizen that some individuals were hellbent on “promoting propaganda” and lying about what was going on in the metro.

“There is an intentional narrative to spread false information. There are challenges in the political arena which are spilling into administrative work.

“A deliberate false promotion of propaganda is being peddled about Mangaung.”

When asked why a municipality – that was placed under national government as it struggled to maintain proper financial controls or deliver services – pays lawyers to do her staffers’ work, Naidoo said although her department had lawyers, there were no qualified people to do the job.

“You need lawyers to translate legal documents, it’s not the same as any language translation. We outsource everything because we have no staff.”

However, an employee in her department disputed her claims.

“We translate every document requested into different languages – either Sesotho, Xhosa, English or Afrikaans.

“The only function we are unable to carry out is transcribing, because we do not have the equipment needed to do so, that is the mainly outsourced work in our department… we do written translations,” said one employee.

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Collapsed services

A mammoth job awaits national government officials tasked with turning around the failing metro marred by lack of service delivery, ghost employees costing it millions, rampant corruption and allegations of nepotism.

Sources alleged that close relatives of at least three cabinet ministers hold top management positions at the metro.

Residents embarked on protests last year, blocking roads and demanding that Mangaung council be dissolved and the city manager step down. This happened as provincial intervention at the metro failed to turn around its finances and the service delivery that had virtually collapsed.

Workers also staged their own rolling protests, demanding to be paid overdue wages.

According to Minister in the Presidency Mondli Gungubele, the intervention gave way for a Cabinet representative to be posted to the metro.

“The Minister of Finance will delegate powers to the Cabinet representative who will also be supported by a multidisciplinary team of experts,” the minister said during a post-cabinet briefing last month.

Tebogo Motlashuping, from the national Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), has been appointed acting city manager after confirmation by council.

No decision has yet been taken to dissolve the metro council.