THE Free State’s Masilonyana Local Municipality mayor Dimakatso Modise has been accused of running a smear campaign to fire the chief financial officer (CFO) after he raised concerns about some contracts, payments, and unspent conditional grants.
The sources alleged that since then, Modise has been targeting the CFO and urged some officials and civil organisations that his appointment was unlawful and he should be removed.
The CFO, Amos Makoae, was appointed in January this year, replacing Kevin Khoabane.
Before the appointment, the cash-strapped municipality had been struggling to pay the salaries of employees on time. The municipality was also struggling to pay pension funds to its retired workers.
Masilonyana was also among struggling Free State municipalities that owe Eskom and water boards billions.
Sources told Sunday Independent that the situation improved after Makoae’s appointment.
They said despite this, Modise allegedly wrote to different departments including the provincial Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Department (Cogta).
They said the municipality also requested legal advice from two law firms that made similar recommendations.
It all allegedly started when Makoae raised concerns about an official, Andile Dingizwayo, who was told to work closely with him. Sources said Modise allegedly told Makoae “not to touch” Dingizwayo.
“The internal audit picked up the red flags and demanded invoices regarding payment of certain contracts. The CFO told him (Dingizwayo) that the internal audit wanted the invoices.
“Instead of providing the invoices, Dingizwayo claimed that his laptop crashed and decided not to come to the office,” they said.
The sources said Dingizwayo reported Makoae to Modise who, in response, allegedly established a smear campaign against the CFO. Another reason the mayor wanted Makaoe to be removed was because of questionable contracts and deals in the municipality that implicated her allies, they added.
The mayor allegedly intensified the war by hiring a “ghost” to write a letter demanding the CFO’s removal. The letter was allegedly sent to the mayor, speaker and municipal manager.
The sources added that the letter, by Bafana Sethokga of Active Society, was written using a false address. They said the address belonged to a white person in Brandfort.
In the letter, Sethokga accused Makoae of exposing the municipality to unwarranted litigation and attachment orders by refusing to honour payments to contracted service providers. Sethokga said Makoae had instead created a parallel procurement process to that of a contracted panel of service providers.
He said the screening and vetting report from the South African Local Government Association (Salga) highlighted that there was no employee character reference check done against Makoae, constituting non-compliance with Regulation 14.
Sethokga said Makoae was also found to be unrepentant and lacking appreciation of the seriousness and wrongfulness of non-compliance.
He also complained to the newly-appointed MEC of Cogta, Teboho Mokoena..
Sethokga has denied that he was used, saying the sources were trying to create a smoke screen to control the narrative. He said the work of Active Society was to demand accountability and just administration.
“This is our demand, compliance with the law. The CFO can follow due process in far as his amazing discoveries are concerned,” said Sethokga.
Makoae did not avail himself to speak to the Sunday Independent.
Dingizwayo said as an official in the finance department, it was his duty and that of other officials to work closely with the CFO. Asked to comment on allegations that the mayor targeted Makoae after he raised red flags about him, Dingizwayo said he was not the municipality’s spokesperson and could not speak on the operations of the municipality. He, however, added that the allegations were unfounded.
Asked if the municipality received the letter from Sethokga, spokesperson Zongezile Ntjwabule said he was not in a position to respond to the question. He added that at no stage had the council and any of its committees discussed or entertained a report of any contracts being questioned by Makoae.
Ntjwabule also denied that Dingizwayo was making payments to contractors, saying only the CFO was accountable for municipal expenditures. He said the invalidity of Makoae’s appointment was raised by the MEC of Cogta in his letter addressed to the mayor and the council.
On the other hand, Cogta has failed to answer specific questions, saying Mokoeana had expressed his comments on Makoae’s appointment through proper channels, procedures and protocols within the confines of the municipality.
The department said it was currently waiting on the municipality to act on the MEC’s sound advice regarding the issue.
After the National Treasury repayment of unspent conditional grants for 2022/23, Makoae recommended that the council should report the matter to the Municipal Public Accounts Committee for investigation. This was after it was found that the money was allegedly incorrectly spent.
The National Treasury said the amount that should be repaid was R21.1 million. The unspent amount was in respect of the Financial Management Grant (R1.5m), Municipal Infrastructure Grant (R11.5m), Water Services Infrastructure Grant (R6.8m), Integrated National Electrification Programme Grant (R1 000) and Expanded Public Works Programme Grant (R1.3m).
The municipality acknowledged the amount and said it would not be able to pay the full amount due to a “serious financial situation”, requesting that it pay the money quarterly.