Councillor Sboniso R Mbatha of the IFP has pointed out that he never mentioned that ‘Council was wrong to have re-instated municipal manager, TP Biyela, at a special Council meeting on June 12’.
“The issue was that COGTA had advised the Council very late about the illegitimacy of Martin Hlengani acting as Municipal Manager. We only heard from COGTA three months after Mr Hlengani had taken up the post. It is remembered that all appointments made by Mr Biyela, following his reinstatement and subsequent re-suspension, were deemed illegal.
“As Councillors, we need to know if appointments made by Mr Hlengani will also be challenged. Councillors want to audit the qualifications of all officials appointed in management positions to ensure they are properly qualified and experienced. What we have at the moment is a ‘comradeship institution’.”
Turning to the draft budget – which hopefully will be passed today (Wednesday) – Councillor Mbatha said the IFP was concerned that R80 000 is to be spent on ‘guns’ – two rifles and six pistols – for the Mayor’s office.
“The IFP also believes that R800 000 on a new mayoral car is also not necessary. We see that R1,1-million has been earmarked for pool and back-up cars for the Mayor – also not necessary. There is also an office chair listed at R4000. These issues need to be debated but we cannot do so as every time the budget meeting is postponed it is because there is no quorum, or the comments from the Provincial Treasurer, are missing.
“If we can cut out unnecessary expenditure we can keep the rates tariff increase at 6% instead of 8%.”