Share

Broke council spends money on lavish cars

accreditation
Mayor Maripe Mangena. Photo by Susan Cilliers/Beeld
Mayor Maripe Mangena. Photo by Susan Cilliers/Beeld

DES PITE allegations that the Greater Tzaneen Municipality has had to apply for a loan to pay service providers, the new mayor and speaker have received new cars!

Mayor Maripe Mangena and Speaker Dikeledi Mmetle were given the vehicles immediately after they started their new jobs.

The municipality in L impopo is believed to have approached a bank for R37 million to pay R20 million to creditors.

Limpopo DA leader Jacques Smalle said the sheriff of the court attached municipal assets on Friday.

“A lavish Mercedes Benz GLE 350 worth R1,2 million was purchased for the mayor, while another R480 000 was spent on a car for the Speaker. The money came from the municipal infrastructure grant from National Treas ury,” he said.

The purchase was made a few days after the municipal election, despite DA councillors opposing the decision during a council meeting.

“It’s obvi ous that ANC cadres will continue to place their self-interest before the interests of the people,” said Smalle.

On Tuesday, Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga said 10 BMWs purchased by the previous A NC administration would be donated to the Metro police’s new anti-hijacking unit.

Greater Tzaneen Municipality spokesman Neville Ndlala said the money used to buy the cars was not meant for municpal services and denied that anything in the municipal offices was attached by the sheriff.

“T he cars were not budgeted for and there was no council resolution, but the matter was urgent. The old car had several breakdowns. The loan is part of our budget . It was not meant to pay service providers.”

Get the best in Soccer, News and Lifestyle content with SNL24 PLUS
For 14 free days, you can have access to the best from Soccer Laduma, KickOff, Daily Sun, TrueLove and Drum. Thereafter you will be billed R29 per month. You can cancel anytime and if you cancel within 14 days you won't be billed.
Subscribe to SNL24 PLUS
heading
description
username
Show Comments ()
Voting Booth
What do you value most personally?
Please select an option Oops! Something went wrong, please try again later.
Results
Earning tons of money
21% - 5 votes
Career Progression
4% - 1 votes
Work-Life balance
75% - 18 votes
Vote
Let us know what you think

Contact the People’s Paper with feedback on stories and how we could make dailysun.co.za even better!

Learn more
Do you have a story for the People’s Paper?

Click below to contact our news desk and share your story with SunLand!

Let's do it!