The mysterious 7,000 km long trajectory of the Mayor of Free State

Nketoana Mayor Mamiki Mokoena appears to have spent R100,000 on car hire and fuel in one month. Photo supplied

• Invoices and fuel cards seen by GroundUp show that the mayor of Nketoana in the Free State travelled almost 7,000 km in a month.
• It looks like she spent almost R100,000.
• The municipality has not responded to GroundUp’s questions.
• According to the Audit Office, the municipality made a net loss of R170 million for the period ending 30 June 2023, with liabilities exceeding assets by R740 million.

The mayor of Nketoana in the Free State reportedly spent about R100,000 on a rental car in one month.

According to an invoice seen by GroundUp, the mayor, Mamiki Mokoena, travelled 6,943 kilometres in a rented Avis Toyota Fortuner between 18 May and 18 June this year. The Avis invoice suggests she was charged R64,893 in rental for the car for the month. Records suggest about R34,000 was spent on the mayor’s fuel card during that period.

This was in response to two collisions in which the mayor’s cars, owned by the municipality, were completely destroyed.

In August 2021, the mayor’s BMW 4-series was involved in a collision. The mayor then appears to have rented a car until August 2023, when a new car, a Haval H9, was purchased. During that time, a source in the municipality said R850,000 was spent on car rental.

The new car was involved in an accident in November 2023 and since then the mayor has been renting a car again, first a Ford Everest and then a Fortuner.

Fuel transactions in the data seen by GroundUp do not match. For example, on 18 May 2024, the car was filled with 67.1 litres of fuel. The odometer reading was 19,800. Two days later, on 20 May, the car was filled again with 53.9 litres of fuel, but the odometer reading was 19,900, suggesting the car had only travelled 100km.

The mileage is also nonsense. The records show that on 21 July the mileage was 20,804 km and that 64.45 litres of fuel were put in the tank in Pretoria at a cost of R1,382.65. The next time fuel was purchased was three days later on 24 July. But on this date, when 76.6 litres of fuel were purchased for R1,665.05 in Heilbron, the mileage was 20,764 km, which was 40 km less than before.

Furthermore, the mayor appears to have spent almost the entire month of July in Gauteng. Between 30 June and 7 August, fuel was purchased in Pretoria or Westdene, with the exception of 24 July, when fuel was purchased in Heilbron in the Free State, although Heilbron is outside the Nketoana municipality.

Phillip Nkomo, an adviser to the mayor, said the municipality was in the process of buying her a new car when asked for comment.

“We are going to use the money that the insurance pays us to buy a new car. We are waiting for the supply chain process and that can take eight weeks,” he said.

When asked to explain the mayor’s expenditure, Nkomo asked who had provided the information to GroundUp.

“I wonder if this is just a personal vendetta to plot against the mayor, or to prove how corrupt she is.”

“It is not good to always write bad things about the mayor. You have to remember that she is a mother to someone and ruining her reputation affects the children. I will discuss it with the mayor and come back to you on the issues of the bill and then respond,” he said.

On Thursday 21 August, Nkomo called GroundUp, with municipal manager Mokete Nhlapo also on the line. Nhlapo promised to send the information by the end of the day, but did not. GroundUp called them both back on Friday 22 August, but they did not answer their phones. A message was left on Nkomo’s WhatsApp, but he ignored it.

Councillor Diphapang Mofokeng (DA) said the DA had asked for an accident report and details of the cost of the rented vehicle, but the municipality had been unable to provide this information.

He said the DA also wanted confirmation that the car had been used for municipal business. He said the logbook had not been kept properly.

The Auditor General’s report on Nketoana Local Municipality for the 2022/23 financial year shows that the municipality reported irregular expenditure of R480 million and that irregular expenditure of R427 million was reported in the 2021/2022 financial year.

The report notes that due to “the status of the accounting records” there was insufficient audit evidence to confirm the amount stated as the municipality had not included the required information on irregular expenditure (as required by the Municipal Finance Management Act). The report notes that R15.8 million was spent in breach of supply chain management requirements, so the municipality understated its irregular expenditure by this amount. In the 2021/22 financial year, R56 million was spent in breach of supply chain management requirements.

There was almost R1 billion (R980 million) of unauthorised expenditure in the 2022/23 financial year, an increase from R811 million of unauthorised expenditure in the previous financial year. Again, the report notes that there was insufficient audit evidence to confirm the amount cited.

The municipality made a net loss of R170 million for the period ending 30 June 2023, with liabilities exceeding assets by R740 million.

In addition, in the 2022/23 budget year, R47.6 million was incurred in fruitless and wasteful expenditure, resulting from interest and penalties on overdue accounts.

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