DA approaches Hawks to investigate intensified corruption, fraud and maladministration in Govan Mbeki Municipality
The Democratic Alliance in Govan Mbeki has submitted an affidavit to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) on Monday to request that they investigate instances of possible corruption, fraud, maladministration and failure to uphold the MFMA in the Govan Mbeki Municipality, as reported in the section 106 investigative report.
In 2019, the MEC of CoGTA, Mr Mandla Msibi called for a forensic investigation to be conducted in the Municipality, amongst others, based on section 106 (1)(b) of the Municipal Systems Act which states that:
“If an MEC has reason to believe that a municipality cannot or does not fulfil a statutory obligation binding on that municipality or that maladministration, fraud, corruption or any other serious malpractice is occurring or has occurred, the MEC must consider it necessary, designate a person or persons to investigate this matter”.
The investigation intended to cover 15 focus points of which a recent council meeting has revealed that only 10 were investigated thoroughly. In the report on the outcome of the investigation, several political office bearers and officials in the Municipality were implicated in a number of possible corrupt activities.
Since the outcome had been made known, several council meetings of the Govan Mbeki Council had considered the report, an action plan aimed at corrective measures to address the report as well as the fitting yet opportune resignation of the Executive Mayor, Thandi Ngxonono, two days before facing a Motion of No Confidence submitted against her by the DA.
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The DA has opposed the resolutions, in the form of an action plan, by these council meetings, as they do not thoroughly and sufficiently address the matter of possible criminal activities that have taken place in our municipality; and that this plans is designed to continue to stall the matter even further.
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It is because of this that the DA has submitted an affidavit with supporting documentation as well as a copy of the section 106 report to the Hawks to ensure that all reasonable steps are being taken to ensure that justice is being served in our municipality.
