Corruption, maladministration and sex-for-jobs and housing scandals has left the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality (EMLM) bankrupt and under administration by the Eastern Cape Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA).
Note to editors: Please find attached soundbites in English by DA Team One South Africa member for Basic Services, Makashule Gana and IsiXhosa by the DA Eastern Cape Premier Candidate, Nqaba Bhanga.
Today, 18 March 2019, the DA requested the MEC for COGTA, Fikile Xasa, to use section 154(1) of the Constitution to institute a full forensic audit into the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality (EMLM) and its three amalgamated municipalities – Lukhanji, Tsolwana and Inkwanca.
A memorandum, entailing this request and other focus points of investigations, was handed over to the EMLM Mayor, Nokuzola Tolashe, at the Komani (Queenstown), Town Hall. (memorandum attached)
I was joined by DA Team One South Africa Spokesperson for Basic Services, Makashule Gana, Enoch Mgijima Constituency Leader, Terri Stander, DA EC Premier Campaign Spokesperson, Mlindi Nhanha, local councillors and more than a 1000 activists in marching through the streets of Komani to hand over the memorandum.
In September 2018 the EMLM was placed under administration.
In 2018 the Municipality was forced to sell 44 municipal vehicles at an auction following a high court ruling to attach R58 million worth of assets to pay its debt.
The Municipality experiences regular water and electricity outages due to lack of funds for maintenance.
Over R1 billion in irregular, unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure was reported by the Auditor General in 2018.
The memorandum places focus on the following areas of concern:
- All financial transactions, including investment accounts, from EMLM and the three entities during amalgamation to determine where all monies flowed to;
- All fruitless, wasteful and irregular expenditure of EMLM and the three entities with the view of implementing proper consequence management on officials and office bearers responsible for the financial woes of EMLM;
- Complete investigation on all bid adjudication committee appointments of service providers/contractors by current and former entities, as well as a complete audit on projects and the quality thereof;
- We are asking that this be done for the period 2015/16 to 2018/19, two years prior to the amalgamation of the municipalities and the two subsequent years thereafter; and
- The DA is also extremely concerned about the allegations of sex for jobs and sex for houses in the EMLM. We therefore request that the administrators, who have been appointed by MEC Xasa, immediately conducts a full investigation and that any evidence obtained be handed over to the relevant authorities for prosecution.
The people of the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality are fed-up with the continual empty promises of the failing ANC government and are ready for the change the DA can bring.
Only a DA government can fight corruption, create fair access to jobs, which places a job in every home, speed up service delivery and Build One South Africa for All.