Mayoral 'satellite' offices unauthorised
IT is with extreme concern that the DA notes the establishment by the mayor of numerous mayoral "satellite" offices along with the illegal appointment of four accompanying "mayoral coordinators".
These offices and appointments have been made without the NMB council approval and the appointments do not appear on the approved municipal organogram. What has raised more than a few eyebrows, although hardly surprising, is that the four appointed candidates are former ANC councillors.
The exact motive for the opening of these offices becomes abundantly clear when it was discovered recently that the "mayoral satellite office" in Kuyga is allegedly being used for party political purposes by none other than mayoral committee member and councillor Thembinkosi Mafana for the purposes of co-ordinating the ANC Ward 40 by-election campaign.
It is also worth noting that this additional cost to the metro fiscus does not appear anywhere on the council approved municipal budget. We have twice written to the city manager, raising our concerns in this regard and pointing out that we believe this ill considered idea constitutes numerous breaches of various municipal acts including the Municipal Finance Management Act and the Municipal Structures Act.
Include into this scenario the continued presence of the numerous "political advisers" in both the office of the mayor and deputy mayor, again without having ever appeared on an agenda before council, and the cost to the city in unauthorised expenditure spirals to millions of rand annually.
To date, we have received zero response to our concerns from the city manager and consequently escalated the matter to the MEC's office in Bhisho. The silence in response to our request for intervention by the MEC has been deafening and appears to have become par for the course when dealing with the provincial department of Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs.
The lack of response from either the city manager or the MEC has prompted us to escalate further this unacceptable situation directly with the auditor-general in Pretoria.
These appointments have been placed on the upcoming council agenda in an attempt to convince council to regularise this blatant abuse of the public purse in what is emerging as little more than cadre deployment gone mad.
The DA will not and cannot ever support such spurious acts, and will do whatever it can to ensure that public money is spent responsibly and where it is needed most in the areas of service delivery and much needed infrastructure improvements. This city can no longer afford to be hamstrung by such blatant political interference, supported by an administration either too fearful or too unwilling to act in the best interests of all our people.
Retief Odendaal, DA caucus leader, NMBM
