“I acted correctly,” says municipal manager

The investigation into allegations of financial mismanagement and corruption, which led to the suspension of the Makhado Municipality’s manager of finance dealing with expenditure in December last year, is still ongoing.

“I am expecting that the investigation will be concluded soon,” said Mr Sakkie Mutshinyali, municipal manager, on Monday.

News of the investigation first surfaced at the beginning of January this year. According to information available to the newspaper at the time, the investigation followed allegations of corruption regarding the procurement process of tenders, the alleged forging of signatures and payments being made to tenderers without their actually rendering the services they had tendered for. Mutshinyali was made aware of these allegations and he, as accounting officer, immediately appointed a company to investigate the allegations.

Following the company's submission of a preliminary report to Mutshinyali regarding their investigation, rumours started to surface that several high-ranking municipal officials had been suspended with regard to the report’s findings. Confirming these rumours, however, proved difficult at first. It was only when rumours started to surface that Mutshinyali himself had been suspended, that the municipality was quick to react. In January, they denied that Mutshinyali was ever suspended and only confirmed the suspension of the manager of finance dealing with expenditure.

It would later transpire that the rumours of Mutshinyali’s suspension had nothing to do with his possible involvement regarding the allegations being investigated. It would seem it had more to do with his decision to appoint a private company to investigate the allegations without Council’s approval. Apparently, this did not sit well with a couple of municipal officials and councillors.

In January, Bobodi said they did not know where the rumours about Mutshinyali’s suspension were coming from. It was, however, clear that Mutshinyali found himself in hot water for his decision to appoint a company to investigate the allegations. He was asked to submit a report on the procedure he had followed that had led to the suspension of the finance manager in question. This report was to serve before Council, but it never went that far.

On Monday, Mutshinyali supplied the Zoutpansberger with a copy of the decision of the municipality’s executive committee (EXCO) on the matter. Handled as a confidential item during their meeting on 29 January (Item CB.8.29.01.15), Council recommended: That the report be withdrawn from the Council agenda, since it is an administrative matter that does not require Council’s interference and that administration be afforded an opportunity to finalize the investigation and report back to the political component through available channel communication.

“This proves that Council and its Exco were happy with the way the municipal manager had handled the case. That is why they even said that they don’t want to interfere into the function of the accounting officer … I acted correctly,” Mutshinyali said. He confirmed that the manager in question was still suspended with full pay until the investigation was finalized. In the meantime, an acting manager of finance was appointed in the expenditure department.

Regarding the investigation itself, the possibility of more municipal officials' getting suspended is not being ruled out.

News - Date: 06 March 2015

Andries van Zyl

Andries joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in April 1993 as a darkroom assistant. Within a couple of months he moved over to the production side of the newspaper and eventually doubled as a reporter. In 1995 he left the newspaper group and travelled overseas for a couple of months. In 1996, Andries rejoined the Zoutpansberger as a reporter. In August 2002, he was appointed as News Editor of the Zoutpansberger, a position he holds until today.

Email: [email protected]