Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Cllr Leona Kleynhans and Sesotho soundbite by Cllr Eric Motloung. See attached picture here.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) tabled questions in both the Thabo Mofutsanyana District Council and the Free State Legislature’s Public Accounts Committee to expose the misuse of funds and lack of transparency surrounding the CoGTA MEC Saki Mokoena’s recent R2.5 million “cheque handover” to the dysfunctional Kestell Water Laboratory.
The DA will also submit formal follow-up enquiries to the Auditor-General (AG) regarding the legality and financial implications of this transaction.
This water-testing laboratory was initially conceived and established by the Free State Department of CoGTA in 2018, but after being found irregular by the Auditor-General, was ‘donated’ to the District Municipality in 2021. However, the property belongs to the Maluti-a-Phofung municipality.
The DA complained to the AG in March this year about the relevant constitutional mandates, funding, ongoing expenditure, rationale, and expected outcomes of this experiment.
Currently, the Thabo Mofutsanyana District Municipality is bearing the costs of salaries and benefits for 15 staff, some of whom are highly qualified.
There is no funding available for operational expenses, additional equipment requirements, staff training, equipment calibration, or municipal service charges. The laboratory has, since its inception, been nothing but a white elephant and a feeding scheme.
Despite the MEC’s statement about improving water quality through testing, which is already being done through the 22 Environmental Health Inspectors of the District, this cheque handover raises further questions.
In the District Council and the Free State Legislature Public Accounts Committee, questions were asked about this expenditure:
- Is it included in the budgets of the Department of CoGTA and the TM district municipality through the Distribution of Revenue Act (DORA) allocations?
- Is it included in the Annual Financial Statements of both entities?
- Is further spending on an already Irregular project by CoGTA equally deemed irregular?
This political stunt by the MEC will impress only the staff currently employed at the lab, which is yet to be accredited.
Even if the R2.5 million is properly accounted for, that money could have been far better spent to improve water quality through better maintenance of treatment plants or by addressing the many dysfunctional wastewater treatment plants in the district, which daily pollute water resources and the environment.
The DA would, through proper governance and infrastructure expenditure and maintenance, ensure people have clean water in their taps, rather than driving around dishing out cheques to dodgy entities.