Steps taken to prevent Plett from financial collapse
The Plett Ratepayers Association is seriously concerned about the incompetence or corruption of a few municipal officials.
The Executive Comittee have decided not to tolerate the deterioration of service delivery in Plettenberg Bay, nor the excessive tariff increases in June because of wasteful spending by incompetent officials.
An urgent appeal has been submitted to their members and ALL concerned ratepayers and residents to contribute financially towards the Association, enabling them to proceed against these abuses by our local Bitou Council and employ the services of specialised and expert lawyers.
A proposed membership fee increase for 2019 has been proposed to enable the Executive Committee to undertake necessary legal action against municipal officials suspected of misappropriating rate payers’ money.
A summary of recent actions taken by the Plett Ratepayers Association to address these problems:
!/ Action has been taken to stop the financial malfeasance in Bitou, including calling in the Hawks, Auditor-General, National Treasury, and SARS to investigate.
2/ Excessive Municipal Salaries – a PAIA (Promotion of Access to Information Act) application was submitted to Bitou Municipality on 21 November 2018, requesting information on the top municipal officials’ salaries and benefits — budgeted at R29 million! Because this seems excessively high, they have asked for copies of the Municipalities employment contracts, pay slips, bonuses, qualifications, paid leave, etc.
The Government Gazette sets upper limits on municipal officials’ remuneration and we want to see if they are paying themselves beyond what is allowed. Having received no reply within the specified 30 days, the Executive Commitee have filed the next required step which allows 30 more days to comply. Barring that, they will have no alternative, but to make an Application to Court to force their compliance.
3/ Asset Write-off for the Mayor – a PAIA was submitted on 7 December 2018 for a list of the Assets written off in the Office of the Mayor in the amount of a staggering R360 256. The Executive Comittee wants to know what these assets were and what happened to them and why were they written off. Once again no response has been received, so the next legal step has been taken and thet are waiting for a response.
4/ Festivals/Entertainment – the Council has been asked to produce the accounting and results for each festival/concert that Bitou sponsored in 2018.
It is a legal requirement that Council receive a prompt accounting, according to Section 67 of the MFMA (Municipal Finance Act) for “Funds transferred to organizations and bodies outside government.” The accounting should include:
- Gospel Festival
- Summer Concert
- Plett GQOM
- Plett Sound on Sound
- 24 Hour Summer Reunion
- New Year’s Eve Party
- and all other Concerts and Festivals with sponsorship by Bitou.
5/ Mayoral car – according to the newest legislation, there is no allowance for elected officials, including mayors, to use municipal vehicles for anything but official use, nor is there allowance made for the exclusive use of a vehicle for a mayor. Doing so is illegal.
A Ward Councillor has been asked to instruct the Municipal Manager to ensure compliance and that it will be tabled at the next council meeting.
If council made the decision to provide cars for those officials, then council needs to rescind those
decisions. The Minister of Local Government, Anton Bredell has been asked to ensure compliance since Bitou has multiple luxury vehicles and it is not to the benefit of Plettenberg bay to have those expenses.
6/ Municipal Manager resignation – Municipal Manager Ndlovu has resigned.
According to a municipal official, Ndlovu has alledgedly resigned to avoid charges of gross financial misconduct which, if found guilty, would ban him from working in local government for a term of 10 years, and if found guilty of criminal activity, he would face potential jail time.
For further information or to assist the Plett Ratepayers Association with their cause for action email or call 044 533 4387 or 082 970 7291.