A probe has been launched into how millions of Rands were wasted by the Umzinyathi District Council, which was singled out by President Jacob Zuma as one of the poorest districts in the country when he opened Parliament in February.
Over R121-million was frittered away due to ‘irregular expenditure’ and another R403-thousand on ‘fruitless and wasteful expenditure’.
The issue was debated last week when a Municipal Public Accounts Committee report was submitted to Council. Newly appointed municipal manager, Dr Sibusiso Ntombela, read out the report. According to the report, just over R40-million of the R121-million should either be condoned or written-off as the internal audit unit had found documents ‘satisfying explanations regarding the expenditure’. However, the unit did not feel ‘comfortable with explanations given as to why the balance of the money – around R80-million – had been spent’.

There was also much debate over an initial R84 000 to pay teachers conducting Saturday classes for high school students in the area

This sparked anger from Councillors who were united in their protesting that the R40-million should not be written off but rather further investigated. According to Dr Ntombela, the unaccounted expenditure occurred ‘because, among other things, there were some documents that were not found to have been submitted in time and because of deviation in the Council’s supply chain management (SCM) policy’. “The challenge is to follow the SCM policy in acquiring goods and services that are budgeted for by the municipality.”
Councillors singled out a payment of R328 512 to Khuzwayo Works Agent, appointed in June, to conduct the Government’s service delivery programme, Sukuma Sakhe, in the district.
Councillors were of the opinion that ‘money from Council is not needed to run war rooms via a consultant. In July, the same agent submitted an invoice of R386 367.
There was also much debate over an initial R84 000 to pay teachers conducting Saturday classes for high school students in the area. It was said a consultant paid the money to the tutors without the knowledge of the Council and then demanded he be paid back – R294 000 for the entire year. Council demanded that there must be an investigation if they are going to refund this money.
Councillors were at the forefront of wanting an investigation into the number of body guards employed without any formal resolutions. This follows the resignation of Mayor James Mthethwa who has since been deployed to the National Council of Provinces.