SEDIBENG. – The DA’s head of the Emfuleni North constituency, Kingsol Chabalala, says the struggling Sedibeng District Municipality had to increase its budget to buy the Sedibeng District Municipality’s executive mayor, Lerato Maloka, a luxury car worth R700 000.

This while the municipality experiences challenges in providing basic services, such as access to proper sanitation and tarred roads.

The information regarding Maloka’s expensive official car was disclosed in a report that was tabled during a meeting of the Sedibeng District Municipality.

According to the report, the municipality’s capital expenditure budget for the 2023/2024 financial year will be increased by R700 000 to provide for the mayor’s vehicle because the high-cost maintenance of her old Mercedes and car rental is becoming too expensive and unfeasible to maintain.

Chabalala believes that these expenses are shocking as the municipality finds itself knee-deep in a financial crisis and is not even able to provide constant basic services to residents.

“The municipality cannot afford to spend money on a luxury vehicle that is unnecessary and a waste of taxpayers’ money,” says Chabalala.

This is not the first time that Maloka has been involved in an uproar over expensive official cars.

In 2022, the DA discovered that a Mercedes-Benz GLB (X247) vehicle purchased for her at a cost of R696 611.99 was collecting dust in the municipality’s offices when she apparently refused to use it. as it did not meet her specifications.

According to Chabalala, this very vehicle stopped after a strange substance similar to sugar granules was found in the engine. It cost the municipality R398 000 to repair.

Chabalala says: “The mayor has cost the Sedibeng District Municipality, which is already on the verge of collapse, R140 000 in vehicle expenses in less than three years. This money could have been better spent if it had been used to fix pothole-ridden roads and poor sanitation, as raw sewage from the main sewerage system flows over the streets because the municipality fails to repair sewer lines.”

“The mayor must get her priorities right. She cannot continue to put her own interests above the interests of the people she is constitutionally obliged to serve,” Chabalala believes.

According to Chabalala, the DA will send follow-up questions to the Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Mzi Khumalo, about the foreign substance that was found in the vehicle that the mayor did not want.

“If anyone is responsible for this, they must be brought to account,” says Chabalala.

According to Chabalala, the DA will also ask the MEC whether it was cost-effective for the municipality to buy a new vehicle for the mayor, instead of fixing the old one.

“The Sedibeng District Municipality’s disregard for residents and their service delivery is unacceptable. It is time to remove the current government and replace it with leaders who are committed to serving and not being served by the people of Gauteng.”