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'Corruption buster gets death threats'

A HIT has allegedly been taken out on the life of a corruption-busting chief financial officer in a Free State municipality.

Three sources told Sowetan yesterday that Ngwathe municipality's chief financial officer Tladi Mokoena was beaten up by two men on Wednesday morning on council premises.

The sources said after Mokoena was asaulted, they heard that "hitmen" were going to be brought from Sebokeng to kill him.

"Mokoena switched off the taps for the people who were stealing from the municipality and now they want to kill him," said a source.

But Ngwathe's new mayor, Jonas Ramokhoase, who took office in May, said he was not aware of any plot to kill Mokoena. He also denied that Mokoena was beaten up at work.

It has been 10 days of high drama at the municipality, starting last Tuesday, June 28, when the council's new executive committee suspended the head of procurement, Makale Mogale, over financial irregularities identified in February this year by an auditor-general's report.

Sowetan reported last week that Mogale had to be marched off the premises by police.

But municipal manager Norman Selai overturned the committee's decision just three days later in a letter asking Mogale to return to work.

The sources said this was done on the instruction of the ANC provincial working committee.

ANC Free State spokesperson William Bulani confirmed that the ANC PWC had got involved, but said they were only "responding to the complaint that proper processes were not followed".

Bulani said he was not aware of a hit list in Free State.

"We are not even aware that Mokoena's life is in danger. We will investigate that."

Ramokhoase also confirmed that the ANC provincial working committee had "discussed" Mogale's suspension with him.

"It was a discussion around where the processes are at," he said.

The ANC PWC told him there was a task team - led by Free State Premier Ace Magashule - probing the municipality's problems.

Some of the alleged corruption in the municipality previously reported by Sowetan includes:

  • R180000 spent on 200 tiny diaries for top managers, at a cost of nearly R1000 each.
  • According to a March 2011 internal audit report, 19 suppliers had the same bank account number as other suppliers.
  • The same report said one supplier had two different bank account numbers, leading the auditor to warn that "payments may be fraudulently deposited into fictitious bank accounts".
  • In a report tabled in council in February, the auditor-general said he could not verify whether assets worth half a billion rand were complete or really existed, because the municipality had no proper asset register.
  • The A-G could not find supporting documentation for R4,4million worth of car allowances and R2,9million of "other allowances" that were dished out to staff.
  • Two years ago, a National Intelligence Agency report said some of the municipality's cars were not running, but yet were filling up with petrol every 15km, at a cost of up to R28000 a month each.

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