Mayor responds to Samwu’s memorandum

The Makhado mayor, Cllr David Mutavhatsindi, responded last week to the memorandum of grievances presented by Samwu and said it was only the ANC that could recall him. Samwu previously called on the mayor and municipal manager both to resign.

In a fairly detailed response, the mayor tried to address all of Samwu’s grievances. The list of concerns and accusations was handed to him during a protest march three weeks ago. In this memorandum, the mayor and municipal manager are accused of, among others, nepotism, fraud and corruption.

Cllr Mutavhatsindi started off by highlighting the fact that the Makhado Municipality received an unqualified audit opinion from the Auditor General the past year. “The municipality further continued to receive awards on financial management and performance,” he said. The municipality is also one of the three top municipalities in the province as far as employment and payments to staff are concerned.

One of Samwu’s concerns was the lack of protective clothing for workers. The mayor attributed this to a problem experienced with service providers, but assured the union that this problem has been addressed and the outstanding protective clothing will soon arrive.

Mutavhatsindi denied that nepotism is practiced by the municipality. “(The) filling of positions in Makhado Municipality are done following the proper recruitment and selection processes,” he said. He also denied allegations that certain personnel received preferential treatment because they were supposedly “friends of the mayor”.

Samwu alleged that the municipal manager had made himself guilty of irregular spending of council money and referred to incidents such as the purchase of a laptop bag, security expenses and cell phone contracts. On this the mayor said all expenses had been approved and the necessary documentation had been handed in. “The R300 000 expenditure has been for the security of both the mayor and the municipal manager, and it has been approved by Council,” he said.

The Tripple Hawks findings, in which several irregularities were pointed out, seem to be more of a red herring to deal with. The mayor answered that, in light of the report's findings, disciplinary processes had been started against certain employees. In some cases criminal charges were laid, the mayor said. “The municipality reserves further comments on the findings of the Tripple Hawks Forensic Investigators, since the matter is sub judice,” he said.

One of Samwu’s concerns focussed on the awarding of a tender to Spectrum Utility Management (Pty) Ltd for the upgrading of the municipality’s electrical infrastructure, allegedly without following proper procedure. “The tender in question was awarded to this company to survey the municipal electricity network and submit to (the department) for future budgetary processes in which the municipality could benefit, and not using any municipal or MIG (grants), as alleged,” said the mayor.

In conclusion, the mayor advised Samwu to rather address these issues at local level and use the appropriate forums to do so. “In the event that the LLF (Local Labour Forum) cannot resolve the issues, the issues can be referred to the external dispute resolution forums like the SALGBC,” he said.

News - Date: 19 November 2015

Anton van Zyl

Anton van Zyl has been with the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror since 1990. He graduated from the Rand Afrikaans University (now University of Johannesburg) and obtained a BA Communications degree. He is a founder member of the Association of Independent Publishers.

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