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The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the sudden resignation of Mopani District Municipality’s Municipal Manager (MM), Republic Monakedi and urges the Executive Mayor, Pule Shai to commence with the recruitment process to replace him with immediate effect.

Monakedi was appointed in April 2017 but unfortunately he could not stop the chaotic administrative and financial mismanagement of the municipality and seriously contributed towards its downfall.

His dreadful legacy contributed to a massive growth of the outstanding creditors. The money that is owed to creditors is currently sitting at R1 billion and there are no plans whatsoever to stop the growth of creditors or to reduce the amount.

Monakedi has failed dismally to improve on the Adverse and Disclaimer opinions by the Auditor General which the municipality has obtained since 2014.

He further failed to improve the sloppy performance reports from different directorates.

The Audit Committee reports, MPAC reports and the Audit Committee continuously complained over about the same issues but his gross incompetence overshadowed all efforts to improve the financial distress of the municipality.

Under his helm various committees have on numerous occasions lamented the municipality for lacking the basic ability to keep reliable financial and administrative records.

The DA will fight to ensure that he is not redeployed to another government position as he is clearly incapable.

The DA believes that it is utmost importance to find a replacement as a matter of urgency. The municipality must now find a qualified, competent person to turn the tide and to put the municipality on more sustainable footing.

It is common cause that a long period without key personnel leads to instability and further deterioration of administrative and financial performance.

The DA urges the Mayor to prioritise the matter and ensure that the position is filled with immediate effect in order to accelerate service delivery in Mopani .

Issued by The DA