SIU, DA welcome arrest of former Moretele municipal manager

The Special Investigating Unit (SIU) and the DA have welcomed the arrest of the former municipal manager of the Moretele Local Municipality in the North West province for allegedly contravening the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) and the irregular awarding of a multimillion-rand IT tender.

Roger Nkhumise was arrested on Friday, and appeared on the same day at the Moretele Regional Court. He is accused of unlawfully appointing Flame IT Strategy to render ICT services to the Moretele Local Municipality, which is largely rural, to the tune of approximately R215 million. The municipality inherited the contract for ICT services from the Madibeng Local Municipality.

“The arrest of Nkhumise follows an investigation conducted by the SIU, which revealed that the municipality increased the scope of work with two addendums to the original contract without following processes governing municipal procurement of goods and services,” said SIU spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago.

He said the SIU investigation revealed that the price in the original contract between the Madibeng Local Municipality and Flame IT was not in sync with the pricing between the Moretele Municipality and Flame IT. Madibeng paid Flame IT approximately R64m for a similar service. “The SIU probe revealed that Moretele is paying way more than what Madibeng Municipality paid Flame IT for a similar service,” he said.

“The SIU has instituted a civil action in the Special Tribunal to review and set aside the contract. This will pave way for the state’s only anti-corruption, forensic investigation and civil litigation agency to recover financial losses suffered by the municipality due to negligence and corruption,“ he said. The DA in the North West said Nkhumise, who was the municipal manager of Matlosana Local Municipality in Klerksdorp until the end of May, was no stranger to controversy.

Freddy Sonakile, DA caucus leader in the North West provincial legislature, said a report by the SIU into the multimillion-rand personal protective equipment (PPE) corruption scandal, released publicly on January 25, also made a criminal referral to the National Prosecuting Authority against Nkhumise for gross financial misconduct for contravening section 173 and 174 of the MFMA.

“After raiding the City of Matlosana municipal offices in December 2020, the SIU found evidence that the municipality overpaid PPE service providers under the watch of Mr Nkhumise. He was then slapped with a final written warning while the criminal referral to the NPA is still pending.

“The DA will continue to keep a close eye on the developments of this case, and we look forward to seeing similar arrests taking place,” Sonakile said.