The cash-strapped Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality (MAP), in the eastern Free State has failed to pay its workers on time – with cracks in the coalition that unseated the ANC a year ago merging.
The impoverished incorporates towns such as Kestell, Harrismith and QwaQwa.
Sam Makhubu, the acting municipal manager, in a notice, said workers would be paid late.
“The Municipality finds itself in a difficult cash flow position due to non-payment of services and continued vandalism of electrical infrastructure. We are therefore unable to pay employees and Councillors on the 23rd November 2022. Employees will be paid according to their post level categories, starting from level 15 upwards,” he wrote.
However, Alison Oates, DA councillor on the hung municipality said the party warned in June that the budget was unrealistic and illegal.
“The budget was eventually accepted on the promise that all political parties would support a Financial Recovery Plan. Regrettably, this did not occur. The municipality’s inability to manage its finances has resulted in a breakdown in community service delivery, which has deteriorated the area’s infrastructure,” Oates said.
“As the cost of living has affected millions across the nation, it is ridiculous that mismanagement has led to hardship across the poorest areas of this already struggling country. The DA will continue its vigorous financial oversight and push for the Council to grasp its financial duties. MAP is in a dire financial situation and the MAP 16 leaders appear to believe that if financial problems are ignored, they will go away.”
The struggling local authority is governed by a coalition led by an outfit called MAP16, a group of former ANC councillors who got expelled from the ANC in 2018. The coalition is also made up of Dikwankwetla Party of South Africa, whose leader Moeketsi Lebesa as the municipality’s chief whip. The current mayor is Gilbert Mokotso (pictured) from MAP16.
Lebesa in an angry Facebook post tore into the “corruption” that had creeped in the coalition government. He said an amount in the region of R80 million had been siphoned from the municipality’s coffers in a matter of days in October and this month.
“As I penned this piece MAP employees have not received their salaries. Employees were only informed through the WhatsApp few hours before pay day that salaries won’t be paid. I don’t care whether I am part of the coalition or not but any government displaying looting tendencies must be called to order,” he wrote.
“When I took the oath to protect and defend the Constitution as a public representative, I meant it. I believe if more politicians could join me in taking their oaths seriously, this country would a better place to live in.”
The story will be updated with comments from the municipality and MAP16.
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