The Enoch Mgijima Municipality has tasked its chief financial officer to probe how R90 000 was allegedly spent on KFC takeaways in one day.
However, an ANC source who was privy to the events leading to the expenditure, has claimed that the money was actually used to transport ANC members to the ANC’s birthday event in East London.
“This money was used to support the ANC going to the event. It was meant for food and transporting of ANC members from Enoch Mgijima to East London,” the ANC source had claimed.
Enoch Mgijima’s chief financial officer Gcobani Mashiya has been the tasked to do the investigation.
According to Queenstown 1 KFC franchise, a single piece of fried chicken costs R17.90 per piece, this would have amounted to 5,000 pieces of chicken. It would also have purchased 3,010 boxes of KFC’s Streetwise Two offering (two pieces of chicken with a portion of chips).
The chicken was bought on January 12, according to the mayor’s quarterly report ending March. This was a few days after the municipality’s controversial manager Chris Magwangqana took office.
The alleged KFC purchase drew howls of outrage upon being investigated by Carte Blanche in July, when a municipal expenditure sheet listed the R90,000 as being spent on “catering” and “KFC”.
However, on Friday, a former ANC regional executive committee member who was close to the deal and who did not want to be named, claimed the R90,000 was used towards ferrying ANC members to the organisation’s January 8 celebrations on January 13 in East London.
This comment drew a sharp rebuke from ANC Chris Hani regional treasurer Madoda Papiyana who said the allegations were malicious and untrue.
“We wanted to clarify that [how the money was spent]. Hence we said let’s do the investigation. When you look at the dates there is nothing that combines it with the ANC. That is just a malicious way of trying to portray the ANC in the wrong light,” Papiyana said. Papiyana also doubles up as the embattled municipality’s head of finance.
On Friday, Enoch Mgijima DA councillor Zuko Mandile said that according to the information they had, the money was used to transport ANC members to the ANC January 8 celebrations in East London and catering arrangements for them.
“That I can confirm even though I don’t have proof at the moment. The KFC is was just to report it [accounting]. It is bad that we had to pay for that considering the poor level of service delivery,” he said.
In the Carte Blanche news TV report, presenter Derek Watts confronted Magwangqana about the poor state of the town.
“On your list of priorities‚ (is) it more important to spend R90‚000 on fried chicken or clean up the town and the townships?” Watts had asked.
Magwangqana replied: “The priorities of this municipality‚ they have been set. It’s the roads‚ electricity and cleanliness of the city.”
“But you haven’t answered the question‚” said Watts.
“If you compare to what we spend each month on cleaning the town and township‚ that R90‚000 is far less than what we spend,” Magwangqana.
“I hope that the CFO will do a proper investigation and report back to council because I don’t remember the municipality having a rally where people were given KFC,” EFF councillor Luthando Amos said.
Finance department head Madoda Papiyana announced the investigation during his presentation of the mayor’s quarterly budget monitoring report ending June 30 at a special council meeting on Thursday.
He said the instruction to further investigate the issue of the KFC chicken expense came from the mayoral committee meeting.
“We also engaged on the issue of the mayor’s car which is hired at R78,000 per month, an amount which is more expensive than buying a new vehicle. I want to say thank God that we did not buy the mayor’s car before the auction as it was going to be auctioned like the speaker’s car which was sold at R500,000,” he said.
The municipality has been renting a car for the mayor since December after the car used by former mayor, Lindiwe Gunuza-Nkwentsha broke down and has been at the panelbeaters for fixing ever since.
On Friday, Papiyana told the Dispatch the mayor’s car was a Volvo XC60 SUV and was expensive because they were hiring it “through an agent”. He would not say which agency.
Enoch Mgijima municipality executive mayor Sisisi Tolashe congratulated the work done by the council and promised to get out of disclaimers in their next audit. Tolashe said: “We must fight any kind of corruption and strive for clean governance.”
Magwangqana did not answer his phone and did not respond to messages sent to him by the Daily Dispatch.
After a number of missed calls, his phone went straight to voicemail...