For three months, both the Northern Cape agriculture department and the ZF Mgcawu district municipality became reliable cash cows for ANC provincial leader Moses Moalusi.
After being caught out, the ANC provincial executive committee member on Tuesday paid R106,206.89 back to the municipality, a Capitec bank proof of payment showed.
Though his gross salary has not been divulged, Moalusi was paid a take home salary of R35 000 per month.
The proof of payment showed that the amount was equivalent to the consecutive three-month salary the municipality’s corporate services division paid him between February and April.
Moalusi’s double-dipping came to the fore when Cope MPL Pakes Dikgetse complained and demanded that action be taken against him.
Dikgetse alleged that in December last year, Moalusi, a Kimberley resident, accepted an employment offer as “portfolio coordinator in the department of agriculture, environmental affairs, rural development, and land reform led by MEC Galerekwe Manopole.
Upon signing, he gave the department the same Capitec bank account used this week to repay the municipality.
To execute the double-dipping, Moalusi allegedly got the job in the department, which he said, was a “fake position”.
“Nothing is called a portfolio coordinator in the office of the MEC in the ministerial handbook,” said Dikgetse, who is also a national committee member.
“The fake position undermines, duplicates and usurps the duties of functionaries in the department,” he said.
He said the conduct amounted to fraud, adding that the ZK Mcgawu municipal manager, acting head of department (HOD) in the agriculture department, Lerato wa Modise, should be held accountable.
He threatened to open a police case.
But Moalusi’s recently extended agriculture contract stated that the appointment was “as per the ministerial handbook dated 13 April 2023”.
Sunday World found only the 2022 handbook.
In Moalusi’s extended contract, Manopole said she used a provision that empowered executive members responsible for the department and public entities to appoint
portfolio coordinators at salary level 11. She said both the Kalahari Kid Corporation and the Nieuwoudtsville Rooibos Tea Corporation were also under her watch as public entities. That way, she said, Moalusi was appointed at a higher salary level 11 instead of 9 – provided for MECs who run multiple departments but not public entities.
Records show that in May, the “head of ministry” in the agriculture department, Kabelo Mohibidu, wrote a letter directing Modise to extend Moalusi’s contract for seven months, which will end in December.
Mohibidu stated in the letter dated May 30 that the directive was Manopole’s wish.
A day later Modise informed Moalusi that his contract extension had been approved and he would earn R812 000 per annum. “It is trusted that you will be happy in your new capacity and will continue to render quality services,” Modise wrote to Moalusi.
A community newspaper in the province reported that the ANC had suspended Moalusi pending an investigation.
Dikgetse said on Friday: “Moalusi has paid back some of the illegally received money to the district municipality. This is an admission of guilt. If he was not exposed, he would not have repaid the money.”
“But what about the money he received from the department of agriculture?” he asked.
Questions sent to ANC provincial chairperson and Premier Zamani Saul, as well as Moalusi, were not answered at the time of going to print.
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