Tswaing mayor accused of unlawfully using municipality’s security service for her protection

Tswaing local municipality mayor Norah Mahlangu has been accused of unlawfully using the municipality’s security service for her protection.

Opposition parties in the municipality in North West are fuming after the mayor allegedly used the municipality’s security service to protect her during the funeral of one of her staff members in Agisanang at Sannieshof.

Mahlangu claimed to have received phone calls from unknown persons threatening to kill her if she attended the funeral.

“I received messages and calls from people that I do not know warning me not to attend the funeral, while accusing me of killing the person whose funeral I was warned not to attend.”

She confirmed she used the municipality’s security service because her life was in danger. “I have been receiving weird calls from people who said I am not their mayor and that I killed my late staff member, therefore I could not speak at the funeral or else,” Mahlangu said.

She said she and municipal manager Ronnie Jonas contracted a tactical response unit of Dephethogo Security, which already had a contract with them, to look after the premises located in Delareyville.

One of the political parties in the municipality, Forum 4 Service Delivery, said it was not in a financial position to pay for anyone’s security because they could not even afford to render services such as water or garbage collection.

Letlhogonolo Motji, of Forum 4 Service Delivery, said: “The municipality has financial constraints… so we are in no position to hire a security service for anyone.”

Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor Kagiso Molefabangwe said: “This is a clear fruitless expenditure, unnecessary costs to the already broke municipality.”

The DA said it had referred the matter to the municipal public accounts committee. But the municipality’s communication unit came to the defence of the mayor, saying: “The mayor used the security personnel after getting the go-ahead from the municipal manager.” Jonas said security threats were confidential matters.