The national treasury has ordered the Mangaung municipality to dissolve its metro police service and to institute disciplinary procedures against officials who played a role in establishing the law enforcement agency. 

In a sternly worded letter, Malijeng Ngqaleni, treasury’s deputy director-general in intergovernmental relations, ordered that any official involved in this process of constituting the metro police service, including members of the mayoral committee, should be subjected to a disciplinary process. 

She warned that the letter was a directive and not negotiable.

Ngqaleni said the treasury had consistently advised the city against establishing the metro police service as it was not a priority because of the dire financial situation that the city has found itself in. 

“This advice was shared with the city as early as when the metro announced the creation of [a] chief of police position and the subsequent appointment thereof. And then, when this explicit disapproval was ignored, it was followed with the same advice in every formal annual budget benchmark assessment and the mid-year budget and performance assessments  since the 2017 financial year.”

The letter was written to city manager Sello More, Free State premier Sisi Ntombela, Free State MEC for finance Gadija Brown and newly appointed Free State Cogta MEC Mxolisi Dukwana. Ngqaleni said the National Treasury had cautioned the city to manage its expenditure and prioritise basic service delivery of water, sanitation and waste management over the years.

Ngqaleni said the advice was ignored and this had contributed to the city being placed under administration. 

Ngqaleni revealed that Deputy President David Mabuza, in his capacity as the leader of government business in parliament, gave the instruction that “all activities associated with the metro police service must be stopped with immediate effect”.

“You are, as the acting accounting officer, directed to institute disciplinary procedures against everyone involved in this process, including members of the mayoral committee,”  Ngqaleni quoted the directive as saying. 

Ngqaleni said the letter served to compel More, as the accounting officer of the metro, to provide treasury with all memorandums served at council that formed the basis for the decision to establish the metro police.

“This record will assist the National Treasury to have a clear picture of who is directly responsible for this decision and who is liable for the expenditure incurred by the metro and in the event the auditor-general finds this expenditure to have been fruitless and wasteful that the said recovery process can be effected.”

More was  advised to address council to rescind the ill-advised decision immediately and advise the national treasury of the position of the metro within the next 14 days.

Mangaung municipality was put under administration in 2019 after the national government raised concerns about its “fiscal capacity”. The national cooperative governance department also found that the municipality was operating at a deficit and that it was facing severe financial risks.

“I want to reiterate it here again to you as the newly appointed acting city manager that the establishment of the Mangaung metro police service will exacerbate the current financial challenges and will undermine the purpose of the approved mandatory financial recovery plan.

"The city is failing to control its operating expenditure, poor revenue collection and failure in corporate governance. To date, even though the Section 139 Intervention is in progress, the city has not demonstrated an improvement in the management of its operating budget,” said Ngqaleni.