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The DA in Polokwane welcomes the draft report presented to Council in a closed special council sitting on Friday, 21 April 2023.

On 29 September 2022, Council resolved to appoint Bowmans Gilfillan as an independent forensic investigator to conduct comprehensive investigations into various matters of Polokwane Municipality.

The scope was initially limited to certain involvements around the previous Acting Director for Water and Sanitation, but the scope was broadened when investigators came across other irregular activities. Council then unanimously approved a wider scope for the investigators, including matters raised by the Auditor General (AG).

The report which took months to produce due to poor and inadequate record keeping slowed the progress of the independent investigators and highlighted systematic and prevalent acts of verified nepotism in appointments, undue procedural errors in the awarding of tenders and possible criminal acts by municipal officials amongst others.

The council session only dealt with the summarised version of the report which highlighted the following, amongst others:

• Verified acts of nepotism in appointments of EPWP workers
• Verified cases of municipal officials misleading or lying to the Public Protector of South Africa
• Appointment of junior firemen not meeting minimum qualification requirements
• Improper drafting, management and keeping of records, including project files
• Major irregularities with SCM processes, including amongst others, bidders drafting their own Service Level Agreements
• Irregular expenditure of R137 million due to irregular appointment of a service provider who performed a pre-bid-evaluation process
• Approving Variance orders without following proper processes
• Acts of fraud by HR officials, altering documents to hide inadequacies
• Irregularities relating to scoring and interviews in the HR department
• Irregularities in the appointment of a Bus Service Provider for Leeto la Polokwane, which could see Polokwane lose a possible R17,8 million as a result of pre-payment for buses.
• Possible criminal acts by Project Management Unit officials
• Probability that numerous tenders were awarded irregularly
• Numerous contraventions of the MFMA.

The DA has requested full access to the entire report, as councillors were only allowed access to a summarised version, which was taken back by Municipal Officials due to its sensitive nature. Some issues raised in the report highlight matters previously raised by the DA and the AG.

The DA will continue to monitor the progress of these investigations and ensure that the full recommendations in the Bowman's report are implemented. The DA demands that all officials found guilty of maladministration face the full might of the law and not merely receive a slap on the wrist. Residents of Polokwane deserve better and demand proper governance.

Issued by Councillor Jacques Joubert - DA Caucus Leader - Polokwane Local Municipality