Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Sesotho soundbites by Cllr Sello Makoena and Afrikaans soundbite by Cllr Marius Marais.
The DA in Dihlabeng welcomes the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) report on the UIF&W matter and fully supports its recommendations.
Accountability cannot be delayed until the Council changes, and it cannot be buried when political terms end. Those responsible must face the consequences of their actions.
The report provides a clear message: this matter cannot simply be closed, written off or swept under the carpet without consequence management being implemented.
The DA particularly welcomes MPAC’s recommendation that consequence management must be pursued. This is an important step towards ensuring that accountability is not reduced to a paper exercise.
The DA remains deeply concerned about the actions, decisions, omissions and failures that contributed to the matters identified during the investigation. Those responsible must be held accountable, including the Municipal Manager and relevant administrators where their conduct or failures contributed to the issues under investigation.
Public money is not political party money. It belongs to the residents.
Residents have every right to expect that municipal officials entrusted with public resources will act lawfully, responsibly and in the best interests of the community. Where wrongdoing, negligence, maladministration or failures in governance occur, there must be consequences.
The DA will not accept the argument that the approaching end of the current Council term should end this matter. Accountability does not expire when a political term expires.
If consequence management is not concluded during the current term, the DA will continue pursuing the matter in the incoming Council. We will ensure that this report does not become another document that is merely noted, filed and forgotten.
The DA therefore calls on the municipality to:
- Implement all MPAC recommendations without further delay;
- Ensure that consequence management is pursued against all officials found to be accountable;
- Provide residents with transparent progress reports on the implementation of the recommendations; and
- Ensure that no official escapes accountability because of political changes or the approaching end of the Council term.
The DA will ensure that our municipalities employ competent people by enforcing merit-based appointments, with suitable qualification criteria, and ensuring consequences for poor performance, mismanagement, and corruption.
The DA will continue to monitor the implementation of the MPAC recommendations and will use every available oversight mechanism to ensure that this matter remains firmly on the municipal agenda.
The residents deserve answers. Public funds deserve protection. And those responsible deserve consequences.
Accountability cannot have an expiry date.