Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning
With regard to allegations of financial misconduct at the Garden Route District Municipality:
- Whether his Department responded to this matter; if not, why not; if so, (a) what are the relevant details and (b) when was it brought to his attention;
- what is the timeline for issuing the letters of demand requiring the monies to be repaid;
- whether there will be any further investigations into the financial misconduct at the Garden Route District Municipality; if not, why not; if so, what are the relevant details;
- when will the outcome of the investigation by the Hawks on the contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act by the former Executive Mayor be known?
7(1) A notice of intention to intervene in terms of Section 139(1) of the Constitution was issued by me on 24 May 2024 to the Garden Route District Municipality. The notice confirmed that my Department of Local Government (“DLG”) has conducted an assessment on payments made to the relevant officials in excess of the waiver approval for the Municipal Manager and the applicable upper limits of the remuneration packages of Senior Managers.
Hereto, the DLG concluded that the Municipality had incurred irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure to the amount of R6,683,107.58 for the payments made to the Municipal Manager and the Senior Managers in excess of what is permissible under the relevant waiver approval and the Upper Limits Notices, respectively.
In terms of the above notice, the Municipality was accordingly afforded and requested to consider the content of the notice and revert to me with their written comments and intended action in respect of recovering the irregular payments made to the Senior Managers.
On 16 October 2024, the Provincial Executive of the Western Cape Government,
after due consideration of the Municipality’s response and evidence before it,
resolved to intervene in the Municipality in terms of section 139(1) of the Constitution.
Hereto, the Provincial Executive noted the Municipality’s unwillingness to fulfil its executive obligations. This in particular, included the obligation to recover irregular and fruitless and wasteful expenditure, imposed on all municipalities by section 32(2) of the Municipal Finance Management Act and any loss or damage suffered by it because of the deliberate or negligent unlawful actions of certain individuals in accordance with section 176(2) of the Municipal Finance Management Act.
- The directive requires that letters be issued demanding that the cited individuals repay the money to the Municipality by a date specified in the letters (such date being within 60 calendar days), failing which, without further notice to them, the Municipality must institute proceedings against him/her/them in a court with jurisdiction aimed at orders to the effect.
- A Provincial Minister’s mandate pertaining investigations is prescribed by strict legislative requirements. Should a Provincial Minister receive any further formal allegations and accordingly has reason to believe that the Municipality cannot or does not fulfil a statutory obligation, or that maladministration, fraud, corruption or any other serious malpractice has occurred or is occurring at the Municipality, I will consider whether any action needs to be taken in accordance with section 5 of the Western Cape Monitoring and Support of Municipalities Act (4 of 2014).
- Unfortunately, I cannot answer on behalf of the Hawks in relation to any ongoing or concluded investigations. Related feedback should therefore be obtained from the relevant law enforcement agency tasked with the investigation.
