COGTA’s R6 million bill for just one proper disciplinary action

15 September 2016

Despite KZN’s COGTA department having spent almost R6million on forensic audits within the province’s municipalities, during the past three financial years, only one person – an employee within the Abaqulusi municipality - has ‘faced the music’ with disciplinary action taken.

The information is from a parliamentary reply to questions posed by the DA in the KZN Legislature which further reveals that seven officials resigned while the various probes were underway while a further seven were dismissed.

According to the reply, 15 investigations were commissioned by the department between 1 April 2013 and 1 September 2016. To date seven interventions have taken place.

A further question around the current status of each investigation shows that eight of the investigations have been finalised with 16 individuals referred for disciplinary action and nine referred for criminal prosecution but with none of these cases finalised to date.

The DA is extremely concerned by the slow rate of conviction.  Another concern is what will happen now that the local government elections have come and gone? All too often matters such as this are simply forgotten as newly elected leadership and councillors take up their positions. 

Another immediate concern is that of individuals who resign when they are under investigation.  The DA has seen numerous instances where this has been the case and where these officials simply move on to another government department and continue to wreak havoc. These errant officials must be blacklisted so they are not employed in any other state department.

The DA expects KZN COGTA MEC, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, to commit to ensuring that these audits are brought to their full conclusion, particularly when one considers the vast sum spent already. This is money that could have been spent a million times over in one of KZN’s many under-resourced communities.

COGTA is the service delivery arm of government.  Until such time as there is a real commitment to weeding errant officials out of municipalities, the people of KZN will continue to receive substandard or non-existent services.

Issued by George Mari,  DA KZN Spokesperson on Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs , 15 September 2016