Much of the alleged tension between Makhado municipal manager Mr Sakkie Mutshinyali and municipal employees apparently stems from Mutshinyali’s appointment of a private company to investigate allegations of corruption within the municipality’s finance department.

The investigation followed allegations of corruption regarding the procurement process of tenders and the alleged forging of signatures by junior officials to exact payments to tenderers without their actually rendering the services they had tendered for. Mutshinyali was made aware of these allegations and he, as accounting officer, appointed Tripple Hawks Auditors & Forensic Audit, a private company from Polokwane, to investigate. Their main focus was to investigate several suspicious payments made to five respective companies, which related to “services” rendered for catering and transport of ward committee members.   

The company released their preliminary findings to the municipality on 17 December last year. Shortly afterwards, the municipality suspended their manager (expenditure) in the finance department, Mr M V Mandobe. This was in accordance with the recommendations of the preliminary report.

The preliminary report, of which the Zoutpansberger obtained a copy, makes for some interesting reading. The report advises the municipality “that there are reasonable and justifiable ground to believe there are elements of fraud and corruption in the municipality” and recommended that the Manager Expenditure be suspended with full pay. “ …we believe there are reasonable grounds to precautionary suspend Mr M V Mandobe with immediate effect to allow investigations to proceed to a finale stage without any interference since payments were checked and done under his supervision. There are also prima facie evidence that Mr M V Mandobe might be [a] party with interest in this matter and therefore [it] is reasonable for the investigations to continue in his absence due to the following reasons: 1) to avoid further loss of information and 2) to allow potential witnesses identified to provide information without fear or prejudice,” the report read.

The report also advises the municipality to instigate criminal charges against one of the service providers implicated in the suspicious transactions. The investigation has found that she is the sole director of four of the companies [tenderers] investigated and recommends that the municipality should immediately open a criminal case of fraud against her “for continuously receiving payments from the municipality in her bank account for a period of more than a year without making any disclosure as required by the Financial Intelligence Centre Act, no 38 of 2001.”

The report worryingly also points out that these above-abnormal practices were, in their opinion and based on the information at hand, conducted with the assistance of the internal staff members of  the municipality. “The involvement of the internal staff is also supported by the fact that crucial information directly linked with the allegations was also stolen at the municipal offices, since mayhem of this kind of corruption prevailed in the corridors of the institution buildings making speculations rife that there is internal involvement and trading of inside information,” the report states. In this regard, the report warns that if these allegations of fraud and corruption are not properly attended to as recommended by Tripple Hawks, it might hold future “potential risks that may have a serious negative impact” for the objectives of the municipality, thus hampering service delivery and resulting in communities losing confidence in the municipality.

The report caused a furore in municipal corridors, with some arguing that Mutshinyali had acted outside of his mandate in appointing Tripple Hawks at a cost of R335 000 without the knowledge and approval of Council. From the onset, however, Mutshinyali defended his actions, stating that he had not only acted within his mandate, but was legally obliged to launch an investigation as accounting officer.

As mentioned in the accompanying article about the appointment of VIP Protection Service, municipal spokesperson Mr Louis Bobodi was also asked on 15 June to confirm whether Council had taken any resolution with regard to the appointment of Tripple Hawks Auditors and Forensic Audit; whether it was indeed within Mutshinyali’s mandate to appoint Tripple Hawks; what the current status of the Tripple Hawks investigation is; whether or not any other employee or official had been investigated or suspended with reference to the report’s findings; whether Mandobe is still on suspension, whether the municipality has laid criminal charges as recommended by Tripple Hawks against the one service provider; and whether this service provider is in the employ of the municipality.

Bobodi responded by again defending Mutshinyali’s decision to appoint a private company without Council’s approval. “The MM [municipal manager] did not need a Council resolution and it was done through deviation in [the] Supply Chain Management office and approved by the mayor as facilitated by the risk office. Yes, the MM acted within his legal powers,” Bobodi stated. As for the current progress in the investigation, Bobodi stated that: “It is [a] work in progress and not [a] once-off investigations.” On the question of whether any other official or employee had been suspended, Bobodi stated: “No other suspension, but two other employees will appear before the DC [Disciplinary Committee].” Bobodi also confirmed that Mandobe is still suspended with full pay. Responding to whether or not the municipality had laid criminal charges against the one service provider highlighted in the report, Bobodi said: “The matter is still being investigated by the SAPS as recommended by the investigation report.” He confirmed that the service provider in question is not an employee of the municipality.