HIBISCUS Coast Municipality mayor, Cynthia Mqwebu’s recent visit to Ireland has raised more than a few eyebrows as ratepayers and residents find out just how much the trip cost.
This follows an article in the Rapport newspaper about South African municipalities that had been duped into paying for municipal management awards.
The article revealed that the awards had been made by the Europe Business Assembly (EBA) and that municipalities had to pay up to R100 000 to qualify for the award.
In July last year, the mayor travelled to Dublin to receive a good municipal governance award from EBA.
The article pointed out that HCM’s mayor stayed at The Westbury hotel, at a cost of R6 500 per nightand spent four days in the Irish capital visiting places of interest.
“I have written a letter of enquiry to the mayor and HCM senior staff,” said AfriForum’s Carlo Viljoen.
“We want to investigate whether there was any unauthorised, irregular, or wasteful expenditure in this matter.” He added that AfriForum wanted to hold the person or persons who incurred this expenditure ‘personally, and possibly criminally, liable’.
HCM spokesman Simon Soboyisa refused to comment. “The municipality will be issuing a formal media statement in this regard at its media briefing scheduled for June 25,” he said.
