The DA in the Northern Cape will write to the MEC for CoGHSTA, Bentley Vass, to immediately address the fruitless and wasteful expenditure by the Sol Plaatje Municipality.

This comes as 160 employees and 19 councillors apparently left for the weeklong SAMRSA municipal games in Mpumalanga on Monday 26 September, even though the budget of R1.5 million was never approved by council.

The DA was ready to oppose the notion that R1.5 million could be allocated for these games. Council failed to conclude its sitting held on Thursday last week due to the unforeseen illness of the Speaker and a decision was not taken to allocate any funding to these games.

We do not think that the municipality can possibly justify wasting R1.5 million on fun and games when residents and ratepayers are frequently left without basic services. When council was approached in 2019 to approve a request for the municipality to attend similar games, the request was denied and the decision taken to divert this funding to much-needed services instead.

The DA will request that this matter must be addressed at the next council meeting. We need to know who is responsible for this wasteful expenditure.

We will not accept that the misuse of funds will be reported as a deviation in the next council meeting or that there was not enough time to run this item through supply chain for approval. The DA will also submit questions to determine which councillors attended and how we can recoup the costs personally from those who use the public purse as their personal piggy banks.

 

Issued by Elize Niemann, Cllr - DA Caucus Chair, Sol Plaatje Municipality