Manager beaten up over tenders
Manager beaten up in his office
North West Correspondent
A North West municipal manager was attacked by a group of people for freezing a R5.1-million project for the refurbishment of graveyards.
Olaotse Bojosinyane was only appointed at the Kagisano Molopo local municipality two months ago, but his job has already turned into a nightmare.
The former magistrate was beaten and his clothes were torn by the mob who stormed into his office on Thursday.
According to Bojosinyane, about 20 people came into his office and demanded to know why he was not implementing service delivery projects.
He said the group called him incompetent and attacked him.
Bojosinyane said the group was probably sent to attack him by municipal mayor Keobiditse Bitsa Lenkopane.
“There were certain individuals close to the mayor [in the group].
“They were demanding service delivery projects. I asked them for clarity... the next thing people were surrounding me saying that I must go back home,” said Bojosinyane, who is from Taung.
He said one of the people slapped him, another grabbed a chair to hit him with while a third one pulled him by his jacket and tore it.
“Police were called and they came to my rescue. The community told the police that I must leave the municipality. I took my laptop and left,” Bojosinyane said.
Bojosinyane said he froze the graveyard project because a few things were not right and he wanted to make sure that procedure was followed.
“I have lodged a grievance complaint against the mayor. Some of the things are still sub judice because there are one or two issues between the office of municipal manager and the mayor and it’s just a question of clarity,” he said.
He said his life was in danger.
“I am afraid that they might break my car.”
Lenkopane said she did not have a problem with Bojosinyane and condemned the incident.
“I know about the attack, it is just the issue of how he does things,” she said.
Lenkopane said projects had to be completed before the new financial year.
“We have declared that every financial year we are going to set aside money in a threeyear plan,” Lenkopane told Sowetan.
Lenkopane said the municipality had earmarked R5.1million every financial year to refurbish the grave sites in all 15 wards.
She said that was not a tender but a way of alleviating unemployment.
“We indicated that we are going to deal with unemployment – that when the graveyards are being fixed, wards must hire 60 unemployed locals, meaning in every ward there will be 1 200 people hired.”
North West police spokeswoman said a case of assault had been opened.