THE new Mopani District mayor, Nkankareng Rakgoale, promised to address irregularities and corruption that led to poor service delivery.
After she was sworn in at a special council sitting last Tuesday, Rakgoale said she was worried about the fact that a clean audit seemed out of reach for some municipalities.
“The government’s benchmark is proving hard to achieve,” she said.
She said this issue was a concern, because municipalities were supposed to be “strategic spheres of government that have to focus on local economy, infrastructure and service delivery”.
Some of the challenges she highlighted in her speech included non-compliance with wasteful expenditure, ineffective management and non-payment of municipal bills.
Rakgoale spoke about the Nandoni project, a multi-million rand pipeline that would bring water from the Nandoni dam to Giyani.
This project came to a standstill due to legal issues.
She said she would study all the reports on this project before she decided what to do about the matter.
“In general, I will ensure that all the people of the Mopani District have access to water and sanitation,” she said.
Rakgoale replaced former mayor Joshua Matlou after he resigned on July 22.
Gareth Fleming, DA councillor, said Rakgoale had to root out corruption if she wanted to achieve a clean audit.
“It is very fortunate that the new mayor was sworn in at the beginning of the new financial year.
“We hope that she will keep to her promises,” he said.
