There is great concern among residents of the Moqhaka Local Municipality due to the fact that the municipality does not fill crucial vacancies such as those of municipal manager and chief financial officer.
With these seats still vacant, acting directors are temporarily appointed for three-month terms.
To complicate matters, the accounting officer responsible for these appointments has been suspended since February, and the municipality appointed an acting municipal manager – whose term expired in June.
Linda Louwrens, councillor at the municipality, says the DA strongly condemns yet another failure by the Moqhaka Local Municipality to appoint senior managers.
“Over the past two years, these positions have been re-advertised multiple times. Critical roles, including those of chief financial officer (CFO), director of corporate services, director of local economic development (LED) and planning, and director of community and social services, remain vacant.”
During a council meeting on Thursday, 4 July, Motloheloa Ellis Mokatsane, executive mayor, stated that concurrency had been granted. It initially appeared that the municipality was finally taking responsibility to prioritise service delivery seriously, as the appointments were due to take effect on 1 August.
However, this optimism was short-lived. The MEC of the departments of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) and Human Settlements later informed the municipality that concurrency had not been granted, forcing the rescindment of these vital appointments.
A special council meeting was called on 11 September by Mokatsane, who requested that current acting directors’ terms be extended up to 18 September, which was set to be the date of another council meeting, while seeking legal advice.
A legal report was presented to the council on 1 October, which concluded that although the municipality failed to supply all documents requested, he was of the legal opinion that the appointment of directors, specifically the appointment of the CFO, would be illegal. Council was once again postponed to an alternative date awaiting a full report to be scrutinised. Mokatsane also failed to request the council’s approval to extend the terms of the interim acting directors. This put Moqhaka on the spot for the umpteenth time to function without directors taking accountability. Should these appointments be rescinded, the municipality will be forced to repeat the entire process. The cost of re-advertising these positions already exceeds R100 000, excluding additional expenses incurred by applicants.
“The lack of accountability in leadership regarding sound financial management has severely impacted the municipality’s financial stability, resulting in budget overspending and unchecked irregular expenditure,” says Palesa Mpele, councilor of Moqhaka.
VrystaatKroon sent enquiries to Dika Kheswa, spokesperson for the Moqhaka Local Municipality. VrystaatKroon also sent an enquiry directly to Mokatsane on Friday, 25 October. At the time of going to print, the newspaper still awaited feedback.
