Parties in the Nketoana Municipality in the Free State are calling on Mayor Mamiki Mokoena to be held accountable.
It is said that Mokoena spent about R100,000 one month for car rental and fuel.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the municipality will raise the issue with the provincial legislature and with the MEC of Cooperative Governance.
However, the municipality disputes the accusations.
The Public Prosecution Service wants an extensive investigation into Mokoena’s alleged excessive spending on car rental and fuel costs.
The party says the current decision to rent a car for the mayor is already putting the municipality to the test, as as much as R100,000 has been spent on it in one month.
The Public Prosecution Service is demanding a full report on the circumstances surrounding the accident involving the previous mayor’s car.
DA councillor Diphapang Mofokeng says they will ask for the logbook and explanation about the accident
“This car has only done 494km but the amount spent on it is a staggering R35,263. There are two possibilities for this one, [one] “Whether this municipal fuel card filled more than just the mayor’s car, or whether it filled the mayor’s car and later emptied and was refilled, we don’t know,” Mofokeng adds.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) believe that those who misuse municipal funds should be held accountable.
According to Bosanku Msimanga, provincial secretary of the EFF, these transactions could involve criminality and possibly fraud.
According to him, the mayor is not interested in ordinary citizens, because she continues to abuse her position and use municipal funds for her own interests.
“Clearly [it] it doesn’t make sense for someone to pay R35,000 for a 490km case. It doesn’t make sense with public funds, people need an explanation. It can’t be business as usual. People need to be accountable and there needs to be [be] investigate so that we understand the problem as it is, provide solutions. There needs to be consequence management for those involved in this issue,” Msimanga explains.
Sam Nhlapo, manager of Nketoane Municipality, denies the allegations.
“As far as the records I have, I am not aware of a situation where a car was filled with R100 000 as claimed in a particular month. Because my records indicate that there is no record of such an amount every month. But I have asked the bank to give us a printout of all the transactions related to the monthly usage of this particular vehicle,” he adds.
Nhlapo says the municipality is finalising the purchase of the new mayor’s car.
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