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Samwu blows whistleblower’s cover in R61.1m corruption, calls for charges against him
The South African Municipal Workers in Thulamela, Limpopo, has surprisingly turned a blind eye to corruption and targeted a whistleblower.
Source: X
Sizwe sama Yende
A labour union in Limpopo has gone on an all-out onslaught against a chief finance officer (CFO) credited with blowing the whistle on corruption.
The South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) in the Thulamela Local Municipality in Thohoyandou this week put pressure by staging a march against CFO, Colbert Mufamadi, and called for him to be charged for bringing the municipality into disrepute.
Samwu did this at the backdrop of a R61.1 million tender graft investigation by the Hawks and National Treasury directed at allegations against municipal manager, Masala Makumule.
The union said in its memorandum to the Thulamela mayor, Athongozwidivha Rambuda, this week that it was concerned about the image of the municipality being dented by corruption allegations that Mufamadi has reported.
It also said that it did no appreciate the Hawks’ and Treasury’s investigations and reportage in the media.
“We feel that the CFO has put the name of the municipality into disrepute. In fact, he has seriously dented the image by working hand in glove with newspapers to dent the image of the municipality and he must be charged for that,” reads Samwu’s memorandum.
Both the provincial and national leadership of Samwu were unable to explain their Thulamela branch’s peculiar action of attacking a whistleblower instead of offering him protection.
Provincial Samwu secretary, Patrick Aphane, referred The People’s Eye to national spokesperson, Papikie Mohale, who referred us back to him.
In September last year, Aphane condemned the Samwu branch for turning a blind eye on the corruption but focus on the whistleblower. He called on the municipality to investigate the veracity of the allegations that attention was being directed towards identifying the whistleblower.
When the corruption allegations in Thulamela were initially raised, they were published on Facebook by an anonymous whistleblower. The People’s Eye reported back then how Samwu and the municipal management subsequently decided to go on a witch hunt against the whistleblower instead of looking at the allegations.
The union has now identified the whistleblower as being Mufamadi.
According to the whistleblower, corrupt activities sprang up in Thulamela municipality after National Treasury allocated the R61.1 million in August 2022 for a neighbourhood development programme that included landscaping, road rehabilitation and repair of the water drainage system.
Thulamela manager, Masala Makumule, allegedly circumvented the process of advertising tenders for a fair and open bid tender process by selecting companies from the municipality’s database, even though the tender amounts were above the threshold determined by the Municipal Finance Management Act to be processed via a closed bid.
Makumule also allegedly excluded the supply chain management officials from participating in the appointment of the companies.
The People’s Eye has seen a document in which Makumule asks a technical services director to “allocate” tenders to two companies in relation to damaged roads in the same project he had appointed two other companies previously.
The six damaged roads projects worth R27.9 million were allocated to companies through selecting them on the municipality’s database, which is allowed if it is an emergency.
However, such deviation does not mean the supply chain management unit officials and the CFO who heads the unit should be excluded from requesting three quotations and appointing a suitable company.
The Hawks have conducted a search and seizure of electronic devices in the municipal offices in Thohoyandou on September 3 last year.
National Treasury has been conducting a forensic investigation following the allegations. The People’s Eye understands that the department took the allegations very seriously and would release the final report soon.
Correspondences between National Treasury and Makumule indicate that the department received the complaint on June 19 from an “anonymous service provider”.
Makumule responded on July 24 2023, indicating that the municipality had not received any formal complaint and, therefore, felt no need to respond to allegations from “faceless complaint on social media platforms.”