Misappropriation of council vehicle by Kouga’s ANC speaker

The Democratic Alliance (DA) caucus of Kouga council deems it deplorable that an ANC councillor, Magdalene Dlomo, who occupies the full time berth of Speaker, was afforded the opportunity to use a Kouga council vehicle and petrol card for a period of six months, despite being paid a travel allowance.

The Upper Limits of Councillors are properly gazetted and they clearly spell out the salary and travel allowances of councillors including that of a Speaker of a local municipality. It does not make provision for a vehicle and additional petrol allowances for a Speaker in a council of Kouga Council’s grading.

In his recent policy speech 2015/16 the MEC for Cooperative Governance in the Eastern Cape, Fikile Xasa, pledged to “… investigate various municipalities where there are allegations of fraud and corruption …” while labelling Kouga municipality as one of 13 dysfunctional municipalities in the Eastern Cape.

Councillor Chimpie Cawood has written to MEC Xasa requesting that he:

Immediately investigates the misappropriation of one of Kouga municipality’s resources by a senior member of Kouga council;

Immediately investigate an alleged accident of the council vehicle under cllr Dlomo’s care, the party responsible for the accident and to recover costs of the repairs, where appropriate.

Government cannot afford any more wasteful and unforeseen expenditure.

The DA believes in a fair society where the hard earned money of taxpayers is utilized astutely and not wasted as a result of negligence, robbing its citizens of precious opportunities.

kougademocrat