MOGALAKWENA Residents’ Association leader, Piet Pale, called on the town’s councillors last Wednesday to convene a special council meeting as soon as possible to remove mayor Tlhalifi Andries Mashamaite from his post.
Pale said Mashamaite should be removed as member of the executive committee as well as mayor of Mogalakwena in order to rescue the municipality from complete collapse.
“The association is investigating claims that the municipality allegedly sold off the golf course to a private owner. Now residents have to pay a lot of money to access the course.
“We are also looking into claims that the municipality sold off the land next to the Mokopane Hospital in extension 12 to a private company,” Pale explained to CV.
“The municipality is in a shambles because Mashamaite violated the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA),” he said.
“Section 16 of the MFMA provides for the mayor to table a proposed budget for the municipality within 90 days of the start of the financial year. This period has lapsed on March 31.
“Section 17 of the act says the mayor must submit the budget with other supporting documents including rates, tariffs and municipal policies.
“The mayor was supposed to have conducted an Integrated Development Plan (IDP) road show and IDP community consultation process in order to include the views and ideas of all the stakeholders.
“Instead the mayor chooses to ignore his role of leading the process,” he said.
“On top of this, section 53 of the act says the mayor should inform the council and MEC about any delays in the budgeting process, but so far Mashamaite did not do this.
“The Mogalakwena Residents’ Association feels the mayor’s conduct around the tabling of the budget could lead to financial problems where the municipality would not be able to fulfill its financial commitments including paying salaries and service providers.”
Spokesperson for the Mogalakwena Municipality, Malesela Selokela, said the sale of the land in section 12 and the golf course was part of the Built on Transfer agreement, which was brokered between the municipality and a mining company in 2010.
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He said the agreement entailed that the mining company provided the funding for a sewage plant and in exchange the company received the land in question.
“The land consists of 450 Ha, most of which was held in trust by the municipality on behalf of the community for future development of the town,” he said.
Selokela said the disruption to the IDP process was a plan to ensure that section 139 (1) (b) of the Constitution was implemented. Section 139 (1) (b) states that: when a municipality cannot or does not fulfill an executive obligation in terms of the constitution or legislation, the relevant provincial executive may intervene by taking any appropriate steps to ensure fulfillment of that obligations.
“We hope that the council of the municipality will ensure that payment of
service providers and other activities goes on without
interruption,”said Selokela.
A reliable source within the municipality said the mayor did not intend to table a budget in order for the 139 (1) (b) to be implemented by the Limpopo government.
The municipality was placed under administration in March by the executive council of provinces. This was announced by cooperative governance, human settlement and traditional affairs (Coghsta) MEC Ishmael Kgetjepe during a media briefing at the time.Kgetjepe said all the officials and politicians implicated in the KPMG forensic audit report on the Mogalakwena Municipality would have to face the music as soon as the administration procedure was implemented.However, he declined to say who the appointed administrator would be.
CV’s source said the administrator was the former municipal manager, Dikgape Makobe, but Selokela could not confirm this.
Soon after being placed under administration, the Mogalakwena Residents Association interdicted Kgetjepe from putting the municipality under administration. At the time Pale said the people of Mogalakwena remained resolute that it was procedurally wrong, according to the Constitution, for Kgetjepe to put the municipality under administration and take over its responsibilities.
He said residents remained confident that the mayor, Tlhalifi Mashamaite, as well as senior managers David Langa and Nkholo Victor Mashamaite were party to crimes as pointed out in the KPMG audit report.
