ActionSA has intensified its anticorruption campaign, targeting the Rustenburg local municipality over R335 million in alleged illegal contracts.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba has taken his anticorruption battle to Rustenburg as he vows to root out the scourge at all municipalities in North West, which is beset by widespread financial mismanagement.
Mashaba led a delegation of the party’s councillors and members in Rustenburg yesterday in a show of solidarity against the endemic corruption in the Rustenburg local municipality, which has been in the news for several years over alleged corruption revolving around awarding of contracts to illegally appointed service providers.
Mashaba was flanked by the party’s Rustenburg councillor and North West provincial secretary Ofentse Kombe and councillor Thamziwe Nkaelang, who both laid fraud and corruption charges against municipal manager Ashmar Khuduge at Rustenburg police station.
AG report highlights serious financial violations
Acting on the auditorgeneral’s report that flagged a number of unauthorised expenditures by the municipality, the party further accused Khuduge of serious financial misconduct in terms of the Municipal Finance Management Act.
The law holds an accounting officer accountable for failing to act on financial mismanagement in the municipality or department they lead.
R10.4m legal fees and R335m tenders under scrutiny
Khuduge allegedly failed to prevent unauthorised expenditure or to take reasonable steps to prevent an unauthorised expending of R10.4 million for the 2024-25 financial year on unsolicited legal fees in violation of the law.
A further R335 million was allegedly illegally spent on issuing contracts to a service provider without following supply chain protocols for the 2023-24 financial year.
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Failure to act fosters culture of impunity
It is suspected that corruption occurred in the issuing of the contracts which Khuduge allegedly failed to prevent as the municipality’s accounting officer.
The AG’s report indicated the unauthorised deviation from supply chain management regulations was a violation of law.
‘We are not ending there’
Mashaba said: “As ActionSA we asked small parties to join our Green Umbrella campaign under ActionSA for a strong battle against corruption.
“These are serious charges that warrant an investigation and action by the law enforcement agencies.
“We are not ending there. We will ask our MP to take up the matter and we will bring it to the attention of the public protector and minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs.”
He said the party laid charges against Khuduge and submitted evidence of his violation of the law in the form of the auditor-general’s report, which reveals massive unauthorised expenditure and violation of supply chain protocol in issuing of contract tenders in Rustenburg.
Kombe said the municipality’s failure to probe the allegations fostered a culture of impunity.
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