CFO: all hands on deck needed to turn ADM around
Good governance, reputable financial principles key, he says
Bankrupt Amathole District Municipality has appointed a new CFO after experiencing financial woes.
Moatlhodi Mosala takes over a municipality that has been in financial ruin dating back to the time former municipal manager Chris Magwangqana, whose contract ended in May 2017, was in charge. It is now struggling to pay service providers employees’ salaries as funds run dry.
Last month municipal manager Thandekile Mnyimba painted a gloomy picture of the rural municipality while addressing a staff meeting at Calvary Christian Centre in East London.
The municipality owes Amathole Water Board and the department of water & sanitation millions.
At the time, Mnyimba said the municipality owed R143-million to service providers who have not been paid since November last year. Its salary bill currently stands at R745million which is at the scale of a metropolitan municipality. During the next financial year, the bill will escalate to about R800million, Mnyimba said.
Mosala takes over from Nomthandazo Ntshanga, who resigned early this year, unable to deal with frustrated service providers who are now beginning to resort to legal action against Amathole. The CFO position has been vacant since then.
Mosala officially assumed his new role on July 2.
“It will take improved business processes, good governance, and consistent and reputable financial principles to turn things around. However, there will need to be a reasonable balance between achieving good audit results and improved service delivery,” Mosala said.
The Klerksdorp-born CFO said the district municipality should also pay attention and support local businesses and small, medium and micro-sized enterprises (SMMEs).
“It is important that we support our SMMEs. That is the only way we can create jobs. With willingness from staff to perform and support from management, we can definitely turn things around,” he said.
Mosala has recently completed his masters degree in business administration (MBA) and has 18 years of experience in local government, more than 10 years as a CFO.
He worked for Xhariep district municipality between 2002 and 2007, Gariep local municipality between 2007 and 2014 and Great Kei local municipality in 2014 until last year. Great Kei is also bankrupt.