- Invoices and fuel cards seen by GroundUp indicate that the mayor of the Nketoana municipality in the Free State travelled almost 7,000 km in one month.
- It appears she spent almost R100,000 on car hire and fuel.
- 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 Municipality in the Free State reportedly spent about R100,000 on a rental car in one month.
According to an invoice seen by GroundUp, Mayor Mamiki Mokoena travelled 6,943 km in a rented Toyota Fortuner between May 18 and June 18 this year.
The Avis invoice shows that she was charged a monthly rental fee of R64,893 for the car, GroundUp reported.
Documents show that approximately R34,000 was spent using the mayor’s fuel card during that period.
This was in response to two accidents in which the mayor’s cars, owned by the municipality, were totaled.
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In August 2021, Mokoena’s BMW 4 Series was involved in an accident.
The mayor then reportedly rented a car until August 2023, when a new Haval H9 was purchased for her.
According to a source within the municipality, R850,000 was spent on car rental between August 2021 and August 2023.
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 viewed by GroundUp are incorrect.
For example, on May 18, 2024, the car was filled with 67.1 liters of fuel. The odometer read 19,800 km.
Two days later, on May 20, the car was refueled with 53.9 liters of fuel, but the odometer reading was 19,900 km, indicating the car had only been driven 100 km.
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The records also show that on July 21, the odometer reading was 20,804km and 64.45 litres of fuel was added to the tank in Pretoria, at a cost of R1,382.65.
The next time fuel was purchased was three days later, on 24 July. On that 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, it appears that the mayor 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. However, Heilbron is outside the Nketoana municipality.
The mayor’s advisor, Phillip Nkomo, indicated that the municipality is in the process of buying her a new car.
“We’re going to use the money that the insurance pays us to buy a new car. We’re waiting for the supply chain process, and that could take eight weeks,” he said.
When asked to explain the mayor’s expenditure, Nkomo asked who had provided the information to GroundUp.
He said:
I wonder if this is just a personal vendetta to punish 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 August 21, Nkomo called GroundUp and also reached municipal manager Mokete Nhlapo.
Nhlapo promised to send the information on the invoices by the end of the day, but failed to do so.
GroundUp called them both back on August 22, but they did not answer the phone.
Nkomo left a message on his mobile device via WhatsApp, but he ignored it.
Councillor Diphapang Mofokeng said the Public Prosecution Service 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.
According to the Court of Audit’s report on Nketoana Local Municipality, the municipality declared R480 million in irregular expenditure for the 2022/23 financial year and R427 million in irregular expenditure in the 2021/22 financial year.
The report notes that due to the “status of the accounting data”, there was insufficient audit evidence to confirm the amount stated, as the municipality had not included the required information on irregular expenditure as stipulated in the Municipal Financial Management Act.
The report also shows that R15.8 million was spent in breach of supply chain management requirements, meaning the municipality understated its irregular expenditure by this amount.
In the 2021/22 budget year, R56 million was spent in breach of supply chain management requirements.
In the 2022/23 budget year, almost R1 billion (R980 million) in unauthorised expenditure was incurred, up from R811 million in unauthorised expenditure in 2021/22.
Again, the report notes that there was insufficient audit evidence to confirm the amount stated.
The municipality made a net loss of R170 million for the period ending 30 June 2023, with liabilities exceeding assets by R740 million.
Also in the 2022/23 budget year, R47.6 million was spent in fruitless and wasteful expenditure, resulting from interest and penalties on overdue accounts.
Tladi Moloi
www.news24.com
