Dear Editor
In the Theewaterskloof Municipality unlawful expenditures are bleeding the municipality dry. In a time where the cost of living in South Africa has become unbearable for most people, we cannot afford to have our governments wasting money that should be used for service delivery.
The Theewaterskloof Municipality is governed by a multi-party coalition between the ANC, GOOD, and the Patriotic Alliance.
ANC Mayoral Committee members of the Theewaterskloof municipal council have spent over R4.3 million on VIP security, claiming their lives have been threatened. This expenditure was not authorized by council. We do note that the matter is on the council agenda, but it has not yet been served in any council sitting, because an investigation into the matter must still be concluded.
The DA will submit an urgent motion to ensure that the investigation is concluded swiftly. Service delivery is severely compromised when tax payers’ money is misspent and the DA in Theewaterskloof will not allow residents to pay for ANC corruption.
The DA was also made aware of outrageous pay-outs that will soon be made to the suspended Municipal Manager and Chief Financial Officer. They were suspended six months ago, but disciplinary hearings are yet to take place. The DA believes that these pay-outs are planned in order to deploy ANC cadres in these positions.
Interestingly, the ANC-coalition wants to ban the Section 32 Committee, which deals with items such as irregular expenditures, and have it all sent through MPAC, of which the EFF is the chair – a partner whose aims are in line with that of the ANC. The matter of irregular expenditure will serve before MPAC today and we await the outcome.
The DA will write to the Western Cape Minister of Local Government, requesting an urgent external investigation into the matter.
The ANC does not prioritise service delivery where they govern, and tax payers’ money, meant for service deliver, are used for personal gains. The DA cares about the people of Theewaterskloof and we will not let this go.
Regards
Martie Koegelenberg
DA Constituency Chairperson, Theewaterskloof
