Allegations of fraud investigated

Bulletin broke the news of alleged fraud being committed by councillors at the Greater Tzaneen Municipality related to travel claims submitted by the attendees after they returned from a three-day long strategic planning session at the luxurious Forever Resorts Blyde in Mpumalanga.

The outing cost the municipality’s rate payers R850 000 to accommodate and feed 136 councillors. The fact that there exists a number of adequate local venues for this strategic planning session was ignored by the municipality who tried to justify their expenditure by claiming that the meeting was so important that the councillors dare not be interrupted during their sessions, which is why they had to leave the province.

Then came the travel claims two weeks later. Because the municipality reimbursed each of these councillors who travelled to the important meeting in their own vehicles. The trouble came however, when it was reported that some of these councillors submitted travel claims for vehicles which they do not own. Case in point was one claim submitted for a Porsche whilst this individual does not even own a car. Another councillor lodged a travel claim despite not having travelled in their own vehicle, but riding along with a colleague.

Initially the DA’s Caucus Whip in Tzaneen, Lebbeus Ramalepe, was very vocal about the party’s stance on corruption and their condemnation of the allegations. “The Democratic Alliance is aware of the irregularities through a whistle-blower and we are busy investigating the situation as it is much broader than just councillors, it involves all who attended and we are still getting all the facts of what happened. Once our investigation is complete we will keep the rate payers of the municipality informed on how we will hold those involved accountable in order to recover possible unlawfully appropriated funds in our quest to hold the Greater Tzaneen municipality accountable and safeguard its coffers to ensure service delivery is prioritised,” he said two weeks ago.

Since then, we have attempted to gain further comment on the matter from him, but he referred us back to the GTM stating “please refer all your questions to the Greater Tzaneen Municipality spokesperson in the name of Neville Ndlala. Thanks.”

We found this response disheartening as it would appear as though the zeal with which this particular situation was initially confronted, seemed to have diminished.

We sent our inquiries to the GTM and Ndlala responded. “We have noted the complaints about fraudulent travel claims and we are of the view that these allegations require a thorough investigation. These allegations must however be directed to the Ethics committee through the Office of the Speaker. These allegations must be tested.”

He went on to explain that councillors are reimbursed for travel claims upon submitting an attendance register as proof that they travelled on official council business. The municipality is currently working on a travel policy for councillors. According to him, that policy would provide clear guidelines on the reimbursement of travel costs as well as conditions for such to happen.

“The Greater Tzaneen Municipality has a zero tolerance of fraud and corruption and as such we have setup an AntiFraud and Corruption Hotline 0800 44 66 44. Members of the public are welcome to report acts of fraud and corruption by municipal employees and/or councillors to the hotline. They can do so anonymously.”