The Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality is facing growing pressure from oversight bodies, organised labour and residents following findings by the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).
The SIU has referred five senior municipal officials for internal disciplinary action after investigating the procurement of more than R25 million on behalf of the Ditsobotla Local Municipality.
The procurement is related to repairs and refurbishments of wastewater treatment plants in and around Lichtenburg.
Among those implicated is suspended Municipal Manager Olehile Losaba.
Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) has requested an update on the action taken against officials implicated in the SIU investigation.
Ngaka Modiri Molema Municipality | Search and seizure operations: Athlenda Mathe
Residents have also called for accountability.
One community member says, “There was an SIU and NIU, and part of the reference was to come and give investigations here. And they just follow all required proper procedures that people must account. So, the one who is sitting on top of the food chain is protecting the rot. So, this is not the government.”
Another resident says, “I’m here to condemn the absolute paralysis that is caused by the current sitting council here that is driven by uncontrollable desires. A decay in terms of the service delivery here.”
The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (SAMWU) has called for intervention by provincial and national government under Section 139(1)(b) of the Constitution, citing governance failures, political instability and declining service delivery.
SAMWU deputy chairperson at the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality, Tungwa Khumalo, says, “Senior managers who were appointed in 2023 before they could finish their probation, their salaries were put at the last notch illegally so. After putting those salaries from the high-notch. They took that matter to the council so that the council could legalise their action. Only to find that among those senior managers are senior managers who don’t have employment contracts or performance contracts with the institution.”
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