Mangaung Metro council has appointed a new acting Chief Financial Officer (CFO) during a special council meeting. Luthanyane Denge’s appointment is effective from Monday until the end of January next year.
It’s been nine months since the Mangaung Metro council had a permanent CFO. The newly-appointed acting CFO was recommended by Finance Minister, Enoch Godongwana. Opposition parties in the council were not happy with the manner in which Lutanyani Denge’s appointment came into effect.
However, council is hopeful that by end of next month, a permanent CFO would have been appointed.
“The council was clear on its role that it’s not under administration, it is under intervention, it has its full powers. We also welcome the intervention by National Treasury, so Mr Denge has been appointed from today up until end of January 2023. The advert is closed for the appointment of CFO. We’re hopeful that by the end of January, we have a permanent CFO who can perform all the functions,” explains the speaker of the council Stefanie Lockman-Naidoo.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) abstained from voting. DA leader in council, Johan Pretorius, says they will not be associated with Denge’s appointment.
Meanwhile, the Economic Freedom Fighter’s (EFF) council leader, Gopolang Lipale says the acting City Manager, Tebogo Motlashuping has not been held accountable for poor service delivery, across various towns of the municipality.
“We feel that Mr Motlashuping is not held accountable, every time the scapegoat is the executive mayor. The man was brought here as an expert who will assist Mangaung from where it was to greater heights but at the end of the day, we see there’s no service delivery, there’s absolutely nothing,” says Lipale.
The Freedom Front Plus’ Chief Whip in council, Henry Denner blames the infighting in the ANC for the failure to fill crucial positions.
“From November 2022, we indicated that due to the infighting in this council, we created some serious issues. The ANC factional fights dragged us we are at the moment at the point where there’s almost no service delivery. And it will only get worse towards the end of the year to next year if we don’t attend to this problem immediately. It’s basically caused by infighting and lack of will to do anything by just focusing on their own issues,” says Denner.
Leader of the Afrikan Alliance of Social Democrats, Pappie Mokoena believes service delivery will not improve across Mangaung unless the municipality fills crucial positions.
The council is now in recess until January 15 next year.
