Municipalities fail to act against VBS-linked bosses
SOME of the North West municipalities implicated in the VBS Mutual Bank scandal have ignored directives to act against their municipal managers and chief financial officers who invested millions into the controversial bank without council approval.
The North West provincial government under Premier Job Mokgoro was now expecting a report from the MEC for Local Government Fenny Gaolaolwe about measures taken by the four municipalities to implement the recommendations of the Sekela Xabanisa CA Inc, which produced a forensic report and recommended legal action against those involved in the saga.
Spokesperson for the premier Vuyisile Ngesi said the provincial cabinet was due to sit before the end of the month and the VBS matter was one of the items on the agenda.
“The cabinet will be expecting a report from MEC Gaolaolwe on measures taken by the four municipalities against officials implicated in the report,” Ngesi said.
He said the cabinet would then decide on what action to take against the municipalities that had failed to implement recommendations of the forensic report.
Only the Mahikeng Local Municipality had suspended its municipal manager. Workers at the municipality have for the past two months been engaged in a go-slow action, demanding the dismissal of those who invested R83 million with VBS.
Mahlakeng Mahlakeng, chairperson of the North West standing committee on public accounts (Scopa), confirmed that several municipalities had not complied with instructions to lay criminal charges against those involved in the illegal investments with VBS.
TSHWANE city manager Dr Moeketsi Mosola rejected recommendations from the clusters, among others, to allow the bidding process to appoint a competent service provider to render project management services.
The proposal came from departments under the chief operations officer James Murphy, who is responsible for implementation under service delivery departments, including Housing and Human Settlements, Roads and Transport and Utility Services.
The terms of reference for the tender included management, planning, implementation and operation of the Integrated Public Transport Network, part of which is the A Re Yeng bus rapid transit system.
The city manager rejected the recommendation and forged ahead with the procurement of GladAfrica to the tune of R12 billion over three years.
Sources close to the procurement process said Mosola was determined to go ahead with the procurement of GladAfrica as far back as March 2017.
The interim report of a council-mandated investigation by Bowmans – procured by Murphy as approved by council – has found that the city did not follow provisions of the Municipal Finance Management Act when it entered into the deal with GladAfrica, and thus implicated Mosola as accounting officer.
Bowmans recommended that a full investigation be instituted as a matter of urgency. The scandal has since strained the relationship between Mosola and mayor Solly Msimanga.
At the Labour Court Mosola successfully interdicted Msimanga, council and speaker Katlego Mathebe from tabling the interim report to council last month.
He presented several arguments, including that Murphy was conflicted as he was part of the implementation of the GladAfrica tender. He also questioned the lawfulness and independence of the investigation. The matter was postponed after Murphy intervened, concerned that Mosola had implicated him in the procurement of GladAfrica.
Murphy’s intervention was to clear his name and drew attention of the Labour Court to the fact that Mosola had allegedly lied under oath by saying in his founding affidavit that the chief operations officer had played a role in the appointment of GladAfrica.
Mosola’s lawyers asked for time to deal with the issues raised by Murphy and would do so by the end of this week.