WORKERS at a Free State municipality downed tools yesterday in protest over the municipal manager's refusal to resign despite corruption allegations made against him.

The union and the municipality's executive committee met two days ago to iron out their differences.

Last week, the provincial leadership of the South African Municipal Workers Union demanded the resignations of Ngwathe municipal manager Norman Selai and procurement manager Mohale Makale after an audit report revealed financial irregularities for which the pair were allegedly responsible.

The union also demanded that two employees who had assaulted corruption-busting chief financial officer Tladi Mokoena resign as well.

Selai bore the brunt of Samwu's anger for failing to stem the tide of corruption in the council as well as unilaterally reinstating Makale to his job, days after he was suspended by the executive committee in June.

He was in turn shielded from scrutiny by former Ngwathe mayor and now newly inaugurated Fezile Dabi district municipality mayor Max Moshodi, when Premier Ace Magashule moved to dismiss him earlier this year.

Selai angered union members during a meeting on Tuesday when, instead of announcing his resignation, he asked for more time to assess documents on the alleged corruption in the municipality.

An audit report tabled secretly in February showed that Selai presided over an administration that spent millions of rands it could not explain to the auditor-general.

Makale is accused of having authorised the spending of R180000 on 200 A5-size diaries for managers.

The A-G's report detailed financial mismanagement which showed that the municipality's claimed R500million in assets could not be verified because there was no proper asset register.

The report also revealed that the A-G could not prove that:

• Car allowances of R4,4million as well as and R2,9million in other allowances were given to staff;
• R7,5million in capital expenditure was spent by the municipality;
• R14million in subsidies were paid to indigents;
• It could not be determined if the municipality had indeed paid R14million in subsidies to the indigents;
• About R85million was spent on staff; and
• R8,2million of VAT reimbursements to the municipality from the SA Revenue Service had been properly recorded by the councilmunicipality.

The report also revealed that the municipality had overcharged for water and electricity for R2,3million the previous year.