Calls for investigation into mayor’s alleged R100k car rental

Parties in the Free State’s Nketoana Municipality calls for accountability from the mayor, Mamiki Mokoena.

Allegedly, Mokoena spend about R100.000 a month on vehicle rentals and fuel.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the municipality will raise the matter in the provincial legislature and with the MEC of Cooperative Governance.

However, the municipality dispute the allegations.

The DA is calling for a comprehensive investigation into Mokoena’s alleged excessive expenditure on vehicle rental and fuel costs.

The party says the current decision to rent a car for the mayor has already burdened the municipality, with a staggering R100 000 spent in a single month.

The DA demands a full report on the circumstances surrounding the accident the previous mayoral car was involved in.

DA councillor Diphapang Mofokeng say they will request for the logbook and explanation regarding the accident

“This car only travelled 494 km but the amount of money spent on that is a staggering R35 263. There are two possibilities to this one, [one] is that this petrol card of the municipality was filling more than just the mayoral car or alternatively it was filling the mayoral car and later drained and refilled again, we do not know,” adds Mofokeng.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) says those who misuse municipal funds should account.

EFF’s provincial secretary Bosanku Msimanga says an element of criminality and possibly fraud might be exposed in these transactions.

According to him, the mayor does not care about ordinary citizens, as she continues to misuse her position and use municipal funds for her own interests.

“Clearly [it] doesn’t make sense for one to pay R35 000 on a 490km case. It doesn’t make sense with public resources, people have some explanation to do to. It can’t be business as usual. People must account and there must [be] investigations so that we understand the problem as it is, give solutions. There has to be consequences management to those who are involved in this matter,” explains Msimanga.

Nketoane Municipal manager Sam Nhlapo has disputed the allegations.

“In terms of the records that I am having, I am not aware of a situation where a car was filled with R100 000 as it is alleged at a particular month. Because my records indicate that every month there is no record of such amount. But I have requested the bank to give us a printout of all the transactions that are related to the monthly usage if this particular vehicle,” he adds.

Nhlapo says the municipality is finalizing the purchase of the new mayor’s car.