DA: Municpality can't account for R100m

The DA is demanding that the Blouberg Municipality in Limpopo Province be placed under administration.

The DA said it sent a letter on Wednesday demanding the urgent intervention from the Limpopo Province MEC for Cooperative Governance, Makoma Makhurupetje.

The party is claiming that the municipality purchased 19.639 279 units from the power utility, Eskom, but sold and used only 16.701 968 units resulting in a difference of2.937 310 units that cost the municipality more than R3 million in revenues.

Charles Keetse, DA Councillor Blouberg Municipality said it had been established that the municipality is losing more than R4 million when it buys bulk electricity annually from Eskom.

The municipality has also returned more than R8 million of the Municipal Infrastructure Grant to the National Treasury, despite the inadequate water infrastructure and lack of water in many communities. This was identified by the Auditor General’s report released in November 2015.

The DA has also noted that according to the report, contracts and tenders to the value of R81 million were awarded, without being advertised, another R86 million cannot be accounted for through irregular and unauthorized expenditure and that a further R1.9 million was spent on legal costs.

“These irregularities, as well as continued political infighting, have compounded the huge service delivery backlog within the municipality,” said Keetse.

“It is clear that this ANC-led municipality is failing to run its financial affairs to accelerate quality services to the people and therefore a serious intervention is needed from the MEC as a matter of urgency.”

The DA had previously requested the MEC to intervene, by establishing a forensic audit on the financial affairs of the municipality, located along the Botswana border.

It is now urging Makhurupetje to evoke Section 139(1)(b) to place Blouberg Municipality under administration.