DA exposes R3m fuel scandal

Following alleged evidence that municipal officials in Limpopo used their taxpayer-funded petrol cards to pay for petrol for their private vehicles, the Democratic Alliance has demanded all of them be suspended.

The DA in Mogalakwena has written to Limpopo cooperative governance MEC Jerry Ndou to immediately suspend municipal officials who are alleged to be involved in the irregular fuel transaction scandal amounting to more than R2.9 million from November 2017 to February.

DA’s Mogalakwena councillor Korny Dekker said: “The DA is in possession of the report that confirms that the municipality has indeed suffered a serious financial loss as a results of these fraudulent transactions by officials.

“According to this report, the matter was brought to the attention of the municipal manager to establish urgent investigations into the transactions, which involve technical department and community service department vehicles to the tune of R1.95 million and R963 289, respectively.”

Dekker alleged that none of the registration numbers on the merchant slips or garage slips belonged to the municipality and that all the transactions exceeded the fuel cards’ allocated capacity.

“The DA can confirm that investigations were conducted and a criminal case was opened by the municipality at Mahwelereng police station [CAS 120/05/2018].”

The case was supposedly taken over by the Hawks for further investigation, but no arrests had been made.

He said investigations had recommended that permanent staff be appointed to deal with fleet and related matters – which included, among others, weekly inspections of all council vehicles for damages and loss.– Citizen reporter