A municipal manager from a financially struggling local council has hit back at his detractors questioning the veracity of his qualifications and citizenship, saying he was being hounded out because he is fighting maladministration ravaging the Free State municipality.
A high-ranking municipal official from Mohokare Local Municipality in Zastron said Molatelo Johannes Kanwendo was appointed to the management position despite a confidential report from the office of the premier raising issues with his citizenship and educational qualifications.
The official, who did not wish to be named for fear of reprisals, said Kanwendo enjoyed protection from ANC bigwigs including Mohokare executive mayor Zingisa Mgawuli and ANC provincial government officials.
Mgawuli referred questions to municipal spokesperson Lehlohonolo Mafatman, who said the matter regarding Kanwendo was sub judice and that “it would be very undesirable to discuss it on the media platforms and prejudice the case”.
Mafatman sent Business Day a verification report from Managed Integrity Evaluation (MIE) Smart Vetting Solutions, dated September 19 2022, that confirmed Kanwendo as an SA citizen. Kanwendo’s bachelor of administration degree obtained from the University of Limpopo in 2008 was also verified.
However, a document marked confidential and stemming from the office of the Free State premier, which Business Day has seen, stated that the department of home affairs could “neither verify the ID credentials, nor confirm” Kanwendo as a “bona-fide South African citizen”. In the document, Kanwendo’s surname is incorrectly spelt as “Kanwebo”. But Kanwendo confirmed the ID number in the document was his.
The document, titled “Report on Mohokare Municipality, Sustainability Checks for Candidate Personnel”, was prepared and signed by Itumeleng Mosiako, the deputy director of information security management in the premier’s office. Dated August 24 2022, the report was confirmed and signed by Sugar Diseko, director of the security and integrity management directorate in the premier’s office.
The report, which was submitted to the premier, co-operative governance & traditional affairs (Cogta) MEC, the director-general and municipal manager, was prepared almost two months before Kanwendo was appointed as municipal manager in October 2022.
In email correspondence, dated September 15 2022, which Business Day has seen, Cogta Free State official Puleng Seisa wrote to Mgawuli’s personal assistant Esona Ncamani and Mohokare municipal HR manager Dipolelo Connie Petlane that the screening report from the premier’s office “could not confirm the appointed candidate as a South African citizen; Mr Kanwendo’s qualification ie Bachelor’s degree certificate could not be verified”.
Official municipal documents describe Kanwendo as the council’s accounting officer and a “South African”.
The municipality received a qualified audit opinion from the auditor-general in 2022. As of December 31 2022, the council had spent R25.9m of the R50.8m budgeted for salaries, and R1.7m of the budgeted R4.4m for annual bonuses. During the period, the council incurred R2.3m in irregular expenditure and R58,529.02 in fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
Rooting out
As Mohokare Local Municipality’s accounting officer, Kanwendo is accountable for service delivery, implementation of legislation, integrated development planning, performance management and management of municipal finances.
He told Business Day on Monday: “I’m a bona fide citizen of SA. I’m from Limpopo. This is just a smear campaign, it’s politics. This is a Zastron story, they don’t want me here because there is maladministration in this municipality and I’m rooting out that maladministration.”
Kanwendo accused municipal officials of misusing Covid-19 funds and municipal infrastructure grants, and of paying for work that was not done: “They have spent over R120m on incomplete projects. They want someone who will sit there and say nothing.”
Kanwendo said he matriculated from a high school in Limpopo in 1985 and worked for the then Venda government’s transport department before working his way up to chief traffic officer in Makhado and Phalaborwa.
He said that municipal employees could not be paid in May and June because of long-standing financial headwinds buffeting the local council.
“The issue of salaries did not start now. I was not paid in October 2022 when I joined the municipality. I was paid in November 2022. The municipality is not in a good state of finances. Between 2019 and 2022 about R100m can’t be accounted for. So, people are just angry that I’m here,” he said.
The local government sector is facing challenges including inadequate skills, cash flow challenges, governance failures and a lack of accountability and consequence management.
Kanwendo said his qualifications include a bachelor of administration degree (University of Limpopo, 2008), diploma in traffic safety management (Tshwane University of Technology, 2004), Certificate Programme in Management Development for Municipal Finance (Wits University, 2010) and a short course in information security management (University of Pretoria, 2016).
After his appointment in October 2022, disgruntled ANC councillors approached the high court in Bloemfontein to have it set aside. They argued that due processes were not followed in appointing him.
In her order, judge Ilse van Rhyn interdicted Kanwendo from presenting himself as the council’s municipal manager or performing functions related to the position. She also ordered him to immediately vacate the municipal manager’s office. Van Rhyn ordered that the decision pertaining to the appointment of municipal manager be referred back to council.
“After about 10 minutes of deliberating on the court order, the council voted Kanwendo back into his old position as municipal manager,” the municipal official said. One of the respondents on the matter was Free State premier Mxolisi Dukwana, who was Cogta MEC at the time. Dukwana is a key ally of President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was elected into the Union Buildings in 2018 on the back of an anticorruption ticket.
When contacted for comment, Dukwana said the provincial government allowed the municipality to run its own legal processes on the matter. He said there was no way his administration would protect a person appointed without due processes followed.
“As it stands now, we don’t have conclusive information to act on him [Kanwendo],” Cogta Free State MEC Toto Makume said. “I’m aware of the report from the premier’s office, but it was before my time as MEC. The report [on Kanwendo] is now before the HOD [head of department] for investigation and advice to the MEC.
“We want the matter to be expedited.”
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