Councillor in hot water over Buffalo City’s R5k donation
ANC told to probe official as grieving family left in cold
ANC councillors in Buffalo City Metro have asked the party’s regional leaders to probe the conduct of ward 10 councillor Roseline Vitbooi, who allegedly pocketed a R5 000 municipal donation meant to assist a grieving family in her ward last month.
Council chief whip Mzwandile Vaaibom on Friday confirmed that he had written to the party’s Dr WB Rubusana regional leadership asking them to probe the matter, while the municipality and police were also doing their investigations into the ANC councillor.
Last month Vitbooi approached another grieving family who had been assisted with a R10 000 donation by the municipality to bury their loved ones and told them they were only entitled to receive half the money.
She told the family that they should hand over the other half to her as it was meant to assist a nearby family which also had a bereavement.
However Vitbooi never delivered the money to the second family, claiming she decided to keep it as that family had “disagreements” over how such donation should be used, claims the family denied and condemned as “pure hogwash”.
She said she later deposited the money to a family member after the funeral.
The Dispatch reported last week that Vitbooi had approached BCM mayor Xola Pakati and asked him to help one family who had lost three loved ones in a fire incident early last month.
After scrutinising their financial position, Pakati, who had already given a statement to police, deposited R10 000 for funeral preparations.
The councillor was last week hauled before the party’s six-member whippery in council where she was grilled about her conduct.
Despite Vitbooi telling the Dispatch the money was meant for the two families, Pakati was adamant he donated the entire R10 000 for one grieving family.
Vaaibom said he had prepared a report after meeting with Vitbooi which he had sent to ANC regional leadership “for them to investigate the matter further and come up with an appropriate sanction for her unbecoming conduct”.
“We met her and she told us that she had applied for the money to be given to the two families. This is despite her submitting accompanying documents for just one family.
“When we asked her why she did not take the other half to the second family, she said there were tensions and that they were fighting among each other as to how the money should be used, hence, she said, she decided to keep it in a safe place until she handed it over to them recently,” Vaaibom said.
The chief whip revealed that they had asked Vitbooi to submit a written report to the ANC on the matter.
Vitbooi, who told the Dispatch last week that she had thought the money was meant for the two families, could not be reached at time of writing.
However, the second family’s spokeswoman Nolubabalo Mgangatho, whose mother died on July 2, denied there were any fights within family members on how the promised donation was to be used.
“She is lying and portraying us in a bad light,” an emotional Mgangatho said.
She said Vitbooi had approached the family and promised to give them a R2 000 for funeral preparations.
“Days before the funeral she came with a group of people and promised to assist us with R2 000. They held a prayer meeting and she left us with only R22 and a half bag of cement because our home had been gutted by fire, promising to come back, but she never did until way after the funeral,” Mgangatho said.
She said instead they were assisted “by other ANC comrades” who arranged with a local funeral parlour for the family to bury their loved ones.
“After the funeral she came and told us she was supposed to have brought the money, but her Absa card was swallowed by an ATM machine.
“We buried our mother on July 16 and when people started talking about her conduct, she then deposited the R5 000 on August 23 which we still have,” Mgangatho said.
Provincial Hawks spokesman Captain Anelisa Feni confirmed the investigation without providing further details. —