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ActionSA strongly condemns the Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Jacob Mamabolo for allowing the Emfuleni Local Municipality to treat the Gauteng Provincial Legislature with utter contempt.

The MEC has permitted a blatant cover-up regarding the R16 million fleet procurement scandal to be tabled as an official response, proving that the provincial government is content to allow the embattled municipality to do exactly as it pleases.

The scandal involves the municipality allegedly paying for 17 vehicles but receiving only 6, one of which has subsequently disappeared without a trace. When ActionSA submitted Legislature Question COGTA 044 demanding answers on consequence management, criminal investigations, and the recovery of these misappropriated public funds, Emfuleni’s Municipal Manager, April Ntuli, evaded all accountability.

In response to six detailed questions, the Municipal Manager provided the exact same copied-and-pasted sentence: “The matter is still under the Council’s internal process, and an official update will only be provided once that process is concluded.”

The CoGTA MEC reviewed this document and allowed it to be submitted to the GPL as an acceptable response this is a gross dereliction of his oversight duty. Particularly egregious is the municipality’s use of “internal processes” as a shield against opening a criminal case.

The opening of a criminal docket for missing public funds worth R16 million is not a discretionary internal matter but it is a strictly statutory obligation under the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act. By allowing this delay, the MEC is effectively endorsing the municipality’s violation of the law, affording implicated officials ample time to conceal evidence.

In response to this farce, ActionSA submitted urgent follow-up questions to the MEC, demanding real action rather than bureaucratic shielding. I have formally requested the MEC to answer the following:

1.      Statutory Intervention: What immediate directives will the MEC issue under Section 105 of the Municipal Systems Act to compel the municipality to provide a transparent, detailed, and substantive account of this missing R16 million?

2.      Criminal Accountability: Will the MEC utilise his oversight powers to legally compel the Municipal Manager to immediately disclose whether a formal criminal case has been opened with the SAPS or the Hawks, as required by PRECCA?

3.      Financial Recovery Deadlines: Given Emfuleni’s severe financial distress, what specific deadlines will the MEC impose to conclude this “internal process,” and what interim interventions is CoGTA enforcing to urgently recover the misappropriated funds?

ActionSA will not allow the collapse of Emfuleni to be swept under the rug with copy-pasted deflections. The party demands full transparency, criminal accountability, and the immediate recovery of the taxpayers’ R16 million.

Issued by ActionSA