By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
National Treasury has urged the Mangaung Metro to halt plans to establish a metro police service.
In a letter, Treasury director-general: intergovernmental relations, Malijeng Mgqaleni, wrote that the National Treasury reiterated it had been “consistent in its advice to the City that the Metro Police Service should not be a priority, given its precarious financial and service delivery performance”, yet the metro established the unit without its approval.
The letter was written to, among others, City manager Sello More, Free State Premier Sisi Ntombela, Free State MEC for Finance Gadija Brown and newly appointed Free State Cogta MEC Mxolisi Dukwana.
Mgqaleni also revealed that Deputy President David Mabuza, in his capacity as the leader of government business in Parliament, gave the instruction that “all activities associated with the Metro Police Service must be stopped with immediate effect”.
“You are, as the acting accounting officer, directed to institute disciplinary procedures against everyone involved in this process, including members of the mayoral committee, in terms of the Municipal Finance Management Act, 2003 (Act No. 56 of 2003). Secondly, no payments nor any additions to the organisational establishments must be allowed under any circumstances,” read the letter.
He added that the letter served to again compel More, as the accounting officer of the metro, to supply National Treasury with all memorandums served at council, which formed the basis for the decision to establish the metro police.
“It is also critical that the said documents also include the decision-making process [and] how the councillors of the metros voted on this item (all decisions). This record will assist the National Treasury to have a clear picture of who is directly responsible for this decision and who is liable for the expenditure incurred by the metro…in the event the Auditor-General finds this expenditure to have been a fruitless and wasteful, that the said recovery process can be effected,” the letter read further.
The embattled Mangaung municipality, including Bloemfontein, was put under administration in 2019 after the national government raised concerns about its ” fiscal capacity”. The national Cogta department also found that the municipality was operating at a deficit and that it was facing severe financial risks.