Madibeng Municipality is alleged to have appointed two service providers for the same work worth millions while struggling to provide basic services.
One of the service providers was appointed mid-last year to take over but the municipality still uses the previous service provider whose contract has expired. The contract is over R137 million.
This is on the backdrop of failing to get clean audits and challenges of providing services.
In recent years the municipality made headlines after being named as one of the worst-performing municipalities in the country.
Throughout the years, Madibeng has failed to receive clean audits from the Auditor-General. Last year, it received repeated disclaimer audit opinions.
It also had unauthorised debit orders and allegations of duplicate payments totaling millions of rands. Now, the municipality is embroiled in another allegation of irregularly awarding an Information and Communications Technology (ICT) tender worth millions of rands, whilst struggling to provide basic services.
For many years the municipality has had several municipal managers on an acting basis. And this has impacted their governance.
Last year, the Auditor-General flagged the municipality after it received repeated disclaimer audit opinions. It’s again under the spotlight for allegations of irregularities in the appointment of service providers.
One of the complainants, Intelligence Everywhere Enterprises, believes there’s something suspicious about the Madibeng Municipality and Sizwe Africa IT Group.
The ICT company says it has not received any payment for its services since it was appointed to provide systems for municipalities.
The company alleges that it has since learned that another service provider, Sizwe Africa IT, has been receiving money from the struggling municipality for the same services it was appointed to provide.
Intelligence Everywhere Enterprises Director Sipho Masinga alleges that the Madibeng Municipality’s action is irregular and a waste of taxpayers’ money.
“We employ a lot of staff in this organisation, we added more people particularly for this contract to have capacity. We haven’t been paid for now eight months, yet we have to pay the salary bill, we have to pay the creditors, we are licencing the product we are selling to the municipality and they haven’t paid. So, you are killing small businesses which are the engine for employment creation in the country, effectively it is economic sabotage.
According to Intelligence Everywhere Enterprises, they received an appointment letter from the municipality on the 9th of June 2023.
The agreement was to provide ICT services, manage wide area network (WAN) infrastructure and provide an off-site recovery facility for business continuity for 36 months.
To their surprise, Sizwe Africa IT Group is also on-site to provide ICT services, manage security operations and provide solutions for end-to-end ICT infrastructure.
Intelligence Everywhere Enterprises claims the municipality is disregarding legislation by contracting two entities to do essentially the same job.
Masinga explains further,” At the core of it is abuse of power, dishonesty and abuse of office.”
Reacting to the allegations, the now acting municipal manager Muthusi Oagile, who has been an accounting officer since December, confirmed the appointment of Sizwe Africa Group IT.
He refuted the allegations, saying the two entities provide distinct services, both in their nature and execution.
The municipal manager also confirmed that Intelligence Everywhere has not received payment since appointment due to ongoing processes and discussion with the municipality.
But local government expert, Dr Tshepang Molale, says he’s not surprised that the municipality finds itself in contractual disputes with service providers.
Dr Molale say municipalities such as Madibeng have failed dismally when it comes to prioritising the delivery of services.
“It is not surprising honestly, this is what we experience when we are looking at municipalities that are coming up with programs or performing without being citizen-centric in their approach. You find instances where it would seem there those who are at the helm, they tend to be looking at fluffing particular interests that are to necessary aligned with the object of proving basic, necessary, important services to the public. When you are not citizen-centric you may masquerade to say the project are to the benefit of the people.”
Dr Molale says those set to receive the services suffer the most.
“In cases where we do find problems of malfeasance or allegation thereof, wasteful expenditure, irregular appointments, in cases where you find duplication of service provider payments, in such cases you would then begin to suspect, citizen participatory processes were implemented looking at satisfying particular interests that are not necessary the interest of citizens.”
Efforts to get hold of Sizwe Africa IT Group were unsuccessful.
