Mnquma’s Merc hire mystery

ANC boss says it’s a fraud to tarnish him

ANC AMATHOLE regional leader Teris Ntutu is embroiled in a car hire controversy after his name was added as a “codriver” for a luxury Mercedes C-Class hired by the Mnquma municipality.

Ntutu is not an employee of the cash-strapped Butterworth-based municipality. Mnquma falls under Amathole region.

The white Mercedes-Benz was hired from December 3 to 7, with M Mafanya – a Mnquma official – as the main driver.

But yesterday Ntutu denied any knowledge of such a transaction, saying the inclusion of his name was a case of fraud.

He said on the very week the Mnquma car was hired he had just taken delivery of his new top-of-the-range Mercedes ML SUV and would have had no reason to require a hired car.

“I had just received my brand new car. Why would I have asked for a hired car? I don’t need a hired car. I have my own cars,” said Ntutu.

The Dispatch has seen a copy of invoices from Avis Car Rental dated January 13, which seeks to find out from a Mnquma official as to when the municipality would be settling the R9 125.68 bill for the Mercedes’ three-day hire.

Ntutu said his details were used “with the aim of tarnishing my reputation”.

He said all he remembered was when his long-time friend Sandile Puti – who works for Mnquma – had asked him for his driver’s licence for Puti to hire a car in his personal capacity.

This was after Puti had crashed his VW Polo TSI in September last year.

“I am not in Mnquma’s employ and so I don’t know how my licence details ended up being used to hire a car for municipal use.

“My understanding was that Puti needed this for private use while his car was involved in an accident. He will have to explain how this happened,” said an angry Ntutu.

Municipal spokesman Loyiso Mpalantshane confirmed this week they had received an invoice from Avis regarding the car hire bill and that “N Ntutu is not an employee of the municipality”. He would not comment further.

The Saturday Dispatch can also reveal that Puti racked up a R39 300 bill, for the municipality’s account, for the hire of a Toyota Rav 4 and later a Hyundai Tuscan between November 18 and December 17.

Asked for comment on the controversial car hire involving Ntutu, Puti did not respond.

But earlier he had sought to explain the R39 300 bill in his name by saying the municipality had hired the vehicle when it was in the process of identifying and registering indigent residents.

The hired car was also necessary during the election of ward committees and to assist during the 16 days of activism against gender violence programme.

The R39 000 bill also included a R7 614 “accident repairs/renter liability” fee.

Mpalantshane referred the Dispatch to Puti for details of the “accident repairs” as the municipality “had no records of an accident report”.

Puti said: “There was no accident. We discovered a scratch”. — zineg@dispatch.