Ex-mayor vows to clear his name
2003-03-31 14:36
Delmas - Embattled former Delmas mayor Juby Makhabane has vowed to clear his name following the release of a damning forensic audit report that implicates him in financial irregularities amounting to R173 000.
The forensic report, released by local government MEC Mohammed Bhabha last week, claims that Makhabane and other senior officials repeatedly and systematically side-stepped financial procedures to plunder the mayoral fund.
Investigators believe that used the money to enrich close acquaintances, including an alleged girlfriend.
Initial allegations by disgruntled Delmas residents prompted the African National Congress (ANC) to oust Makhabane as mayor and member of the Delmas executive committee.
Bhabha has since called for criminal charges and civil action to recover the losses.
Makhabane came out fighting on Monday, however, insisting he is clean.
The outspoken politician threatened legal action against both Bhabha and the Delmas municipality to clear his name.
"A court of law is the only thing that will vindicate me now," Makhabane said. "I want the MEC and the council to tell me which piece of law I violated."
He concedes that he used the funds, but said he had the right to use them as he wished in terms of the law. He added that mayoral funds were not subject to an audit according to a municipal ordinance of 1939.
Bhabha said he was aware of the ordinance and for that reason had ordered municipalities to close down all mayoral funds in March last year because they couldn't be audited and therefore were open to abuse.
The audit reports' findings, he said, showed irregularities in the fund between March 2000 to July 2002.
Private auditors found that a total of R173 135 was withdrawn from the fund, but only transactions amounting to R23 877 could be accounted for. There's no clue as to how an additional R149 258 was spent.
The report also implicates the town's secretary Rudolf du Toit, council speaker Jabu Ngoma, Makhabane's girlfriend Joyce Tholo.
Tholo was irregularly promoted to assistant administrator and allegedly received R4 000, while Du Toit and Ngoma are believed to have received R700 and R100 respectively.
The report points out that Tholo's initial appointment as Makhabane's secretary was illegal.
Most recently, Makhabane paid his friend and municipal manager Teffo Kadi R36 000 as performance bonus on December 24, defying a council resolution. Kadi has insisted he deserved the money and threatened to take further action against the council.
Bhabha has recommended in the audit report that the council lay criminal charges against Makhabane and his alleged accomplices. He added that the council should recover all the lost money, and take disciplinary action against implicated civil servants.
ANC provincial secretary Lucas Mello said the party would go through the report and decide whether to institute its own disciplinary action against Makhabane or not.
Makhabane said he has no problem with being relegation to the position of an ordinary councillor but was concerned that the report says he's corrupt.
Ngoma said the council would meet on April 7 to decide Makhabane's fate as a councillor.
Ngoma said he was "shocked" at also being implicated in fraud allegations.
"This disturbs me. The R100 was properly approved and I'll challenge the former mayor and his secretary for lying."
Delmas Residents Committee spokesperson Slash Setenyane said the organisation was pleased with the report.
"Now we want to see all the implicated individuals facing criminal charges. The fact that people steal money and pay back without facing criminal charges for their actions is a serious weakness in government," Setenyane said.
He said Tholo was a "bedroom appointment" and should be immediately dismissed and her post re-advertised. - African Eye News Service