Mayor uses tender company car

THE mayor of a Limpopo municipality has been using a car belonging to a service provider for official duties while the mayoral car sits idle and gathers dust.

Bela-Bela local municipality mayor Lucas Nhlapo, who is also deputy president of the SA Football Association, has been driving around in a car belonging to Dikala Plant Hire, a company awarded several tenders by the municipality.

The Pretoria-based company allowed Nhlapo to use its car – a black BMW X5 – while the official vehicle that was supposed to be used for mayoral duties has been gathering dust on the municipal premises.

The company, owned by Ben Poto, won tenders from the municipality for fleet management and for construction, among others.

The service provider’s car given to Nhlapo has been fitted with blue lights and the mayor drives himself most of the time.

Mayoral cars are not supposed to be fitted with blue lights if they are not being driven by experienced drivers who have undergone training.

Nhlapo has also been using the municipality’s petrol card to fill the car with petrol. Documents seen by Sowetan indicate that Nhlapo has been using the car for almost two years.

Poto confirmed the car used by Nhlapo belonged to him but hung up the phone when questioned further.

“What do you want to know and why?” he asked before hanging up.

Nhlapo confirmed he had been using the service provider’s car but said he did not know this at first.

“That car was supplied to me by the municipality from the same service provider who has a tender for fleet management with the municipality . And I would not know [it was a company vehicle] because I don’t get involved with supply chain issues,” he said.

He said the Jeep that was sitting idle was an old car that was unsafe for him to use.

Nhlapo was elected mayor of the municipality in 2014.