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I have today written to the Public Protector, Adv. Thuli Madonsela, to request that her office investigate the awarding of a tender to build toilets in Moqhaka to the ANC mayor of that municipality, as reported in the press today. A copy of that letter follows below.

The news that the ANC’s mayor in Moqhaka, Mantebu Mokgosi, served as an executive director of the company awarded the contract is a further disheartening example of how corruption directly undermines service delivery. It is deeply and profoundly unethical for a sitting public representative, let alone a mayor, to be awarded any contract paid by public funds, least of all one in the municipality in which that person serves.

It is reported that the contract in question was worth R1.6 million, a part of which would have gone into Ms Mokgosi’s pockets. Self enrichment, at the expense of service delivery, has become a defining trait of the ANC’s administration of local government. And, when self-interest is promoted above service delivery, it is inevitable that delivery suffers as a consequence.

It is for this reason that, in the Western Cape, the DA-led administration has passed legislation which prevents any member of a public administration, or their family, from owning a company that benefits from a public tender. The DA has submitted that legislation in every province as a private members bill, but the ANC has not acted on it.

This is what has happened in Moqhaka, poor service delivery was supplanted by self-enrichment and the consequences have been dire for those people on the ground. The interests of those in power were put above the interests of those being served.

It is my hope the Public Protector will give this matter her urgent attention.

COPY OF LETTER TO THE PUBLIC PROTECTOR

Dear Advocate Madonsela

I am writing to request that you investigate the circumstances surrounding the failure by the Moqhaka Municipality in the Free State, to properly provide and enclose some 1 600 toilets for the residents of Viljoenskroon.

It is reported today, on the Mail & Guardian website and on the front page of The Star newspaper, that the mayor of Moqhaka, Mantebu Mokgosi, together with her husband, serve as Executive Directors of the company Danteb Building Construction CC, which was awarded the contract by Moqhaka municipality to build the toilets in question. I have attached to this request, both stories referred to.

It is reported that Ms Mokgosi was an ANC councillor in the municipality, when the tender was first awarded, by The Star. The Mail & Guardian report states Ms Mokgosi’s company was awarded the contract in 2006. In 2006, she would be elected mayor. Either way, it is fundamentally problematic.

Apart from an investigation by the Human Rights Commission, which is investigating a possible infringement of human rights, the relevant body needs to investigate whether or not there has been any illegality, unethical or inappropriate bevahiour in this case. Hence we are approaching your office to investigate.

The Star also reports that, after the work was not completed by the initial contractor (Danteb Building Constructions), a second tender for the toilets was, according to residents, awarded to a company that is also owned by an individual who served as an ANC councillor.

After some 10 years, the toilets in question are still unenclosed and the job required of the company awarded to build them, incomplete. The consequence has been a long term and sustained assault on the dignity of those people who live in Viljoenskroon.

If it is true that the mayor was an ANC councillor when the tender was awarded, this is profoundly problematic and deeply unethical. There is a case to be made too that it is corrupt.

I would like to request that you investigate the awarding of this contract and the contract subsequent to it, the circumstances around which those decisions were made and whether they were done in accordance with the law.

Thank you.