THE HoD of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) is under fire from a group of traditional leaders who accuses him of conducting routine fiscal dumping every March.
Thando Tubane is accused of transferring millions of rand to selected municipalities in the last week of every March in order to avoid returning the money to the Treasury and having his department flagged for underspending.
The accusations against Tubane are contained in a letter from the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa) to the MEC of the department, Bongi Sithole-Moloi.
The letter dated June and leaked to IOL paints a picture of a broken relationship between Tubane and the organisation of traditional leaders led by Inkosi Nathi Maphumulo, the secretary of Contralesa in KZN.
The organisation said its work had been hampered since 2017 when Tubane and other officials refused to cooperate with them.
At some point, the organisation alleged Tubane told it could not tell him how to run the department.
It asked MEC Sithole-Moloi to rein in Tubane as legislated by the law, which stipulates that she has powers to act against officials who are not doing their work.
"Since the HOD together with the above-mentioned senior officials have abused their official powers by deliberately excluding us which has led to the organisation failing to achieve its mandate.
“Hence, we are requesting your good self to take necessary steps in ensuring that these officials including the HOD accounts for their conducts (sic).
“As your good self knows that the traditional leadership situation has been in a dire state ever since we have been excluded by these officials,” reads the letter.
Contralesa said that during its engagements with the department, they were told that the department suffered budget cuts from Treasury, which is why there was a snail space in addressing their issues.
However, they said their contention was that the department is misappropriating funds, which is why it is failing to address these issues.
“The basis of our contention was due to our observation on how the department reported to be spending funds in annual reports.
“Evidently, the department has been conducting fiscal dumping to avoid underspending by transferring funds to selected municipalities weeks or days before the end of the financial year,” Contralesa alleged.
The organisation attached evidence it said it gleaned from internal department annual reports.
“Annexure A indicates that R47,250,000 was transferred to different municipalities weeks or days before the end of financial year.
“Moreover, with a total of R150 101 000 transferred to municipalities, only R10 795 000 was reported to be spent.
“So, this explains the fact these funds are transferred, which is to shift the responsibility of underspending by the department to the municipalities,” it alleged.
With all this evidence, the organisation of traditional leaders said this was enough evidence to warrant Sithole-Moloi to act against Tubane.
“As currently the case, which is the underspending of grants by the municipalities as your good self has experience of late.
“Furthermore, by so doing the department has avoided accounting for the funds, since they never report again even in the following Annual Reports.
“It was our position and still is, that the HOD has failed to execute his fiduciary duties as required by the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).”
The department said it could not confirm or deny that the MEC received the letter.
“The Office of the MEC cannot currently confirm or deny the existence of the letter you mentioned.
“The MEC's interactions with stakeholders are considered confidential unless all parties involved agree to make them public.
It maintains that it has a good working relationship with Contralesa, and if there are issues, they are addressed.
“However, it is important to note that there is a positive relationship between Contralesa, Department of Cogta led by the Head of Department, Mr Tubane, and MEC Bongiwe Sithole-Moloi.
“This collaboration has resulted in significant improvements in traditional leadership.
“In the event that there is a need for discussions regarding certain matters, the involved parties convene promptly to address the issues at hand.”