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A powerful Swazi Nostra, massive looting, ghost workers are some of the reasons the rural municipality is in the red.

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Sizwe sama Yende

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Behind the story of the collapse of Mpumalanga’s Nkomazi Local Municipality are allegations of a powerful “Swazi cartel,” a hidden report, ghost workers and embezzlement of funds.

The rural municipality with a seat in Mpumalanga has been struggling to pay salaries and this prompted workers to march demanding their July pay.

Payment of salaries is, however, not the only problem troubling the municipality.

According to insiders, Swazi nationals occupied key positions in both council and administration and were looting and channeling money to their home country.

The allegation that Eswatini nationals can survive as civil servants and politicians in Nkomazi has been proven before.

A former MMC in the municipality, Musa Robert Vilakazi, left after 10 years and went back to his home country in Eswatini where he started businesses and campaigned to be a Member of Parliament in 2023.

Vilakazi was also a member of the ANC Ehlanzeni regional executive committee.

Most of the corruption with the municipality, an insider said, was covered in a report by late Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) chairperson, Thabo Ngwenya.

Ngwenya was fatally shot at his home in Mangweni near Malalane in April last year in front of his wife. Since then, the report was never tabled before council.

Nkomazi mayor, Phindile Magagula, declined to comment about the contents of the MPAC report – its findings and recommendations. Magagula however denied that the report was omitted or sat on.

She declined to reveal its findings and recommendations. “Members of the public or interested parties who wish to access these recommendations can do so by following the proper procedures under the Promotion of Access to Information Act,” Magagula said.

The insider said that the municipality has been peddling lies saying that its financial constraints emanated from being overstaffed. “Then, why do they keep employing people? Some are employed without advertisements,” said an insider.

 “Secondly, we have ghost workers including husbands of MMCs (Member of Mayoral Committee).”

The source said that the provincial Department of Cooperative Affairs and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) had indicated it would subject the municipality to a forensic audit investigation, but nothing has been done so far.

Cogta had come across information of the municipality’s perennial failure to submit bank statements, R81.5 mil embezzlement of funds and spending of Municipal Infrastructure Grants for purposes they were not intended for.

Magagula denied that there was a Swazi cartel in the municipality. Allegations have also been directed to Magagula that she was building a private clinic in the Kingdom of Eswatini, where one of her parents is a national.

“I’m not aware of any allegations linking wrongdoing within the municipality to a group referred to as the Swazi Cartel. If such allegations do exist, I believe they need to be thoroughly tested and verified through proper investigative channels to establish their validity before any conclusions are drawn,” Magagula said.

She denied that she was building the private clinic. “This is propaganda. If I may ask, can anyone build any building like that one competing with the king. I don’t think so. There are group of individuals busy [spreading] this propaganda. I know this is from the municipality,” Magagula said.