Tunatazama - Community Monitors

Tenderpreneuer ransom

Makhotla Sefuli

Makhotla Sefuli

Matjhabeng Local Municipality

Free State Province

28th July 2022

 

#tenderpreneuerransom

 

Matjhabeng municipality never runs out of drama and shenanigans. The council is now facing a very serious crisis of clean governance that is threatening the current administration .

It has always been an open secret that the municipality is run by tenderpreneuers who hold it at ransom. Irregular expenditure  and adverse audit reports an innate characteristic of this council.Things got to a peak over the weekend of 23rd July 2022 when the council came under siege of unruly elements who parade themselves as service providers.

These are the people who know when the equitable share money is deposited into the municipal coffers from the national treasury. They are privy to this information in a manner that not even the chief financial  officer can explain, they have the audacity to go to the procurement department and tell the officials who should get paid and who should not.

This is always done in intimidation to the officials

Ferdi Meyer hall was booked for an event on 23rd July 2022 which was disrupted by service providers. They claim that they are owed by the municipality for services that they provided last year.

After an intervention by the mayor and the municipal manager, the service providers promised to come back again on Monday 25th July 2022.

 

On the said date the municipal employees were greeted by big padlocks on the gates as they tried to access the work premises. They threatened to bring everything to a halt if they not paid. The South African Police Services were called to calm the situation that almost turned violent because firearms were drawn and brandished in full view of both the municipal workers and the public,the municipal security personnel that was on the premises were overwhelmed by the altercation.

The situation prompted the mayor to call a special council sitting on Wednesday 26th July 2022 to bring the matter to debate, prior to that sitting there was a multiparty forum from opposition parties to discuss the same issue.

What transpired  out of that forum is that these companies are ghost contractors who have been benefitting from fraudulent tender processes with the previous administration .They claim huge amounts of money for shoddy workmanship without any oversight,monitoring or evaluation by the municipality.

The multiparty forum resolved therefore that the matter be removed from the executive and be brought to council.

The council was convened and agreed that the mattershouldbe brought to the(MPAC) Municipal Public Accounts.

Last month, ironically the national treasury pledged 545 million to the municipality to fix the decaying and old infrastructure. The national treasury appointed their own team of experts to do oversight of the money and avert any acts of corruption, hence the outcry because companies that are the usual beneficiaries from fraudulent tender processes cannot access the money from national treasury.

A list of companies that have been fraudulently benefitting from malpractices was issued by the municipal manager to council, one of the findings is that the auditor general identified them as non compliant and the proper procedure in acquiring municipal tenders.

Six companies that call themselves The Big Six have opened a case against the municipality for failure to honour the financial obligations of the process. The mayor and the executive resolved therefore that they cannot engage these companies in dialogue because the matter is already before the court and is therefore sub judice