The Deputy Minister of Water and Sanitation, Sello Seitlholo, says they will lay more criminal charges against the Ngaka Modiri Molema District municipality in the North West for contaminating water resources.
He said this after an oversight visit to a wastewater treatment plant and the Molopo River in Mahikeng.
There have been increasing complaints about dysfunctional wastewater treatment plants and sewage spillage in some areas around the North West capital.
Seitlholo was visibly irritated that the waste treatment plant was discharging raw sewage into the Molopo River.
“It is the same action, we are already in the process now, we have already opened a criminal case it is on the Mmabatho wastewater treatment works because outside of this Mahikeng waste treatment water works Mmabatho is completely non-functional, it is not operating at all, so it means their discharge is of raw sewerage that is untreated.”
He says they are also amending the National Water Act, with the aim of introducing liability costs for high-ranking municipal officials, including mayors.
“We are introducing personal liability costs to the Mayor, to the MM and technical directors in the municipality because at this point in time when you take the municipality to court and the high court find them guilty to say you must pay the fine of R150 million and you are given 60 days to submit corrective action plans the reality is that money is born out of the rates that are being paid by municipalities on equitable shares”
The Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality’s Thembinkosi Mabovu acknowledged they are struggling to maintain the deteriorating water and sanitation infrastructure.
“Our infrastructure is old. If you check the entire municipality, the entire district the infrastructure is old, some 50 years. The lifespan has passed and then we really need funding to deal with our old infrastructure.”
The Department of Water and Sanitation has committed to finding ways to assist the Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality in its water and sanitation challenges.
*This article was first published by SABC News
South African banks accused of manipulating the rand are set to present their case to the Constitutional Court on Tuesday.
They plan to outline the financial and reputational damage caused by the Competition Commission’s allegations of being part of a “banking cartel”.
In January last year, the Competition Appeal Court reviewed the matter against 28 banks, dismissing the case against most of them.
Despite the Competition Appeal Court’s dismissing most of the claims, the case is now being taken to the Constitutional Court.
The institutions approaching the court include FirstRand and Standard Bank, among others.
Their legal teams will spend the next four days arguing that some of the evidence presented, including conversations spanning over seven years, is too weak to substantiate a single, overarching conspiracy.
*This article was first published by SABC News
The North West Legislature Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Human Settlements has questioned the 2-year contract extension of the North West Housing Corporation (NWHC) CEO, Sello Mogodiri.
The provincial Department of Human Settlements informed the committee during an oversight meeting that Mogodiri’s contract, which ended in July, has been extended.
Mogodiri was appointed as the CEO in August 2020 and has been lashed by different political parties in the province for his controversial Smart and Mega City R74.3 billion project plan.
The bone of contention was the 2-year contract extension of Mogodiri.
The extension comes amidst the portfolio committee’s call for the suspension of the CEO and the halt of all Mega and Smart City projects.
After a failed R250 000 event at Lokaleng village, outside Mahikeng and allegations that entity was pushing forward with developments on disputed land.
Chairperson of Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements Kgalalelo Makgokgowa and Democratic Alliance (DA) member of the legislature CJ Steyl voiced their concerns.
“I was worried about the legal implications because under normal circumstances you were to extend for someone who’s been a substantive CEO, you would usually go for six months for just preparation, for the handover to the next incumbent. Two years seems a bit steep,” says Makgokgowa.
“Quite shocking news considering the road we’ve been walking with the housing corporation over the last year. One would have considered that an extension can be made on six months, three months. You know when a contract comes to its natural end, there is no legal requirements to justify extending that contract or not because there’s a start date, there’s an end date,” says Steyl.
Steyl accused the entity of tying the CEO to projects
“The other issue that was raised is that the CEO had initiated certain projects and that it would be unfair or disadvantages to the entity should the contract be ended and that would negatively impact those projects. That in itself chairperson is a serious consequence that a project of an entity is tied to, directly linked, its success and the outcome, to the accounting officer,” he says.
MEC for Human Settlements Gaoage Molapisi defended their decision to extend the contract
“I want honorouble Steyl to tell me which law says that you must bring issues if the advert or whatever before this committee. Where in law does it say that before we process we must come before this committee. There’s no such a thing, so let’s not make wrong assumptions here. Now, you say there’s a house resolution to discipline and suspend the CEO, where’re that? So you can’t question us when we’ve taken a decision to extend for two years, because you would have preferred us to extend for six months,” she says.
The interim board’s term of office is coming to an end next month.
Board Chairperson Dr Manketse Tlhape argues that they needed Mogodiri, who was initially running the ship alone.
“The interim board came in April and we found the contract of the CEO was just about to expire. It was expiring 13th July. So, as in when we trying to find our feet, we had the Auditor-General also coming for audits. We did not have any much information about the institution. We looked for the legal advice also in that regard to say how do we deal with that because we had no option but to extend. Remember that as in entity we did not have a board for two years. He was the accounting officer he was the accounting authority,” she says.
MEC Molapisi says that the CEO’s departure would have collapsed the entity
“There has been some bit of instability in the entity itself. The term of the CEO was coming to an end or came to an end in July. We have extended contract of the CEO. The CEO had requested initially that the contract be extended for a period of five years. The MEC could not approve this. There are quite a number of things that were are busy dealing with and had you allowed the departure of the CEO. The coming to an end of the interim board we were going to collapse the entity and all the initiative that we have put in place,” says Molapisi.
The DA alleges that the contract was extended without considering the CEO’s concerning performance at the NWHC.
“It might be that you can consider extending a contract based on exception of good performance but then the submissions from the chairperson was that they couldn’t assess because performance appraisal has been done they couldn’t assess the performance of the CEO. How is that justification because the reports that we’ve been receiving in this committee is that there wasn’t any performance?” asks Steyl.
The DA, which has vehemently rejected the extension, says it will request a full report in the legislature.
*This article was first published by SABC News
The Democratic Alliance (DA) wants Tourism Minister Patricia de Lille to urgently account to Parliament following the precautionary suspension of South African Tourism CEO, Nombulelo Guliwe.
The party says De Lille’s decision to attack the Board’s decision will scapegoat Guliwe.
De Lille says, according to legal advice, only the Chairperson of the Board can call a Board meeting, and SA Tourism currently has no Board Chairperson.
DA MP Haseena Ismail says, “Instead of focusing on the allegations against the CEO, the Minister is fixated on whether the board had the authority to suspend her without a chairperson. However, it cannot be that the Minister attacks the board while giving no attention to the serious allegations against the CEO.
Meanwhile, Ministerial Spokesperson, Aldrin Sampear, says, “The Minister has written to the board to give reasons on why they believe the board should not be dissolved. The submissions have now been received, and the Minister is currently looking at those. The Minister will also be convening the sector and speaking to them about the developments that have taken place at South African Tourism.”
*This article was first published by IOL News
The case returns to the Pretoria High Court on Monday.
Former defence minister, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, wants the bank records of the businesswoman she is accused of accepting bribes from in exchange for government tenders.
Mapisa-Nqakula is charged with 12 counts of corruption and one of money laundering.
It’s alleged that between 2016 and 2019, she received over R4.5 million in kickbacks from a defence contractor.
The case returns to the Pretoria High Court on Monday.
Controversial businesswoman, Nombasa Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu, is listed as a section 204 witness in this case.
This means that while she is implicated in the alleged crime, she may be granted indemnity from prosecution due to her testimony.
In court records, its alleged that Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu paid Mapisa-Nqakula millions in kickbacks for her assistance in directing defence tenders her way.
Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu also has a separate corruption case, which was struck from the court roll due to persistent delays.
Lawyers for Mapisa-Nqakula have requested the State to handover Ntsondwa-Ndhlovu’s bank records and the full details of why her corruption case was dropped.
*This article was first published by IOL News
By: Abigail Visagie
ANC factional battles have seemingly begun to play themselves out openly in government corridors with Sports, Arts, Culture and Recreation (SACR) MEC Ntombizanele Sifuba allegedly pulling the rug out from under the feet of departmental head, Steve Tshabalala, unexpectedly this week.
A leaked official letter from Sifuba’s office has been making the rounds on social media platforms this week, announcing to all SACR management staff that all delegation duties about the head of department (HOD) had been withdrawn with immediate effect in terms of Regulations 25 and 26 of the Public Service Act of 1994 - including all amendments.
The letter further indicated that all authoritative powers formerly held by Tshabalala’s office have been officially moved over to Sifuba’s office.
“All matters requiring executive attention or decisions formerly handled by the HOD must henceforth be directed to the Executive Authority until further notice,” reads part of the letter.
When Journal News reached out to SACR for comment, department spokesperson Tankiso Zola refused to shed more light on the matter, citing that it was an internal departmental issue.
"The subject matter of your enquiry is an internal departmental matter which, in tandem with employer-employee relations, the Executive Authority of the department cannot offer public commentary about," he said.
Although it is not clear whether Tshabalala has been entirely removed from his role or merely suspended until further notice, Sifuba’s actions have been interpreted as a power move attempt to weaken another faction within the Free State ANC, which Tshabalala belongs to.
Both Sifuba and Tshabalala are believed to belong two opposing internal ANC factions respectively, as members of the ANC provincial executive committee (PEC). These latest developments in the SACR corridors have therefore set the battleground for this unfolding power tussle.
Rife speculations suggest that Sifuba belongs to the ‘Kaizer Sebothelo faction’ - which is currently led by ANC Free State chairperson Mxolisi Dukwana - while Tshabalala is believed to be aligned to the ‘OR Tambo faction’, spearheaded by Free State Premier Maqueen Letsoha-Mathae.
The two factions are believed to be discreetly wrestling for power, with Sifuba’s recent move openly drawing the line in the sand. This political tiff is expected to further intensify with the OR Tambo cohort expected to counter this move in due course.
According to internal sources within the ANC PEC, Tshabalala has faced criticism in the past over alleged misuse of public funds - prompting Sifuba to act.
The source tells Journal News that former SACR MEC Limakatso Mahasa had reprimanded Tshabalala, pointing to the leaked recordings where Mahasa questioned Tshabalala about the R8 million spent on the Premier's Soccer Tournament and another R3 million that was spent on a failed Freedom Day celebrations in Thaba Nchu, where no one from the public showed up.
There are further allegations of Tshabalala channelling departmental funds towards the annual ANC January 8 celebrations, which were held in QwaQwa.
With the Mangaung Cultural Festival (Macufe) looming, further speculations suggest that Sifuba’s withdrawal of Tshabalala’s powers is aimed at safeguarding the festival’s funds against any potential misappropriation.
Meanwhile, ANC provincial secretary Polediso Motsoeneng claimed to not be aware of the tensions between Sifuba and Tshabalala.
Journal News managed to reach Tshabalala when contacted for comment, and he requested to meet for an interview this coming week. This is a developing story.
