THE purchase of a luxury vehicle worth more than R300 000 by the Blouberg Municipality for their speaker, Maria Thamaga, was according to the DA done without the council’s approval.
Blouberg DA ward councillor Charles Keetse said the municipality bought the expensive vehicle in spite of the enormous service delivery backlog in the area. He said Blouberg was one of the most rural and poorest municipalities in the country, with residents still collecting firewood to cook with, and using donkey-carts to fetch water.
“Section 16 of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) indicates there must be a written quotation that stipulates the condition of the purchase of goods or services, but in this case this did not happen,” he said.
“Another R400 000 was also spent to purchase two bakkies. These bakkies are nowhere to be seen. According to the supply chain policy, the purchase of any goods or services above R200 000 requires that at least three quotations must be obtained in order to compare the prices. The council was not notified about any of these purchases and a tender was not advertised, which is a clear violation of MFMA regulations,” he said.
“The DA demands that the mayor, Serite Sekgolwane, takes action against the municipal manager and the chief financial officer (CFO) for all these purchases. We further urge the municipal public accounts committee to summon the CFO, in order to determine what happened to the bakkies and why the correct procedures were not followed,” said Keetse.
Blouberg mayor, Serite Sekgoloane denied any irregularities in the purchasing of the vehicle.
He said the new government gazette that was released last year allowed the council to purchase a vehicle for the speaker depending on the affordability. “We had a budget of R500 000, and we purchased the vehicle. The speaker was using her own car and now we will get a chauffeur to drive her in the new car. It is not her vehicle, it is government property. The DA made a mistake in not verifying first,” Serite said.
