/ MEDIA STATEMENT / The content on this page is not written by Polity.org.za, but is supplied by third parties. This content does not constitute news reporting by Polity.org.za.

As the relentless plundering of Dawid Kruiper continues, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has reported the failure of the Municipal Manager to safeguard the assets of the municipality to COGHSTA MEC, Bentley Vass.

In the most recent incident, approximately R500 000 worth of copper electric cabling was stolen from the municipal yard in Upington last week. The impact of this on the electrical unit will be crippling because there is now no high voltage cable left.

The fencing on the municipal premises was not cut, meaning that the facility’s gate must have been left wide open for criminals. It is also highly disturbing that the long lengths of cable were stolen without any hindrance from the security unit. This must have been the work of a group of men. A bakkie or small truck would also have been required to drive the copper wire away. How did no one hear or see anything?

This incident, like the many other cases of theft that we have witnessed over the past months, has raised a number of questions about municipal security services? If such services, for which money is budgeted, actually exist then how is it possible that municipal property and infrastructure is left unprotected?

The ongoing theft is starting to look more and more suspicious, as if it is being facilitated by a purposefully absent security unit. At this rate, it won’t be long before there is nothing left of Dawid Kruiper.

Section 63 (1)(a) of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) clearly places the onus of safeguarding municipal assets on the accounting officer of the municipality. His failure to do so therefore makes him guilty of financial conduct. We therefore hope that Vass will investigate the fact that the MM is not complying with this duty and ensure that the necessary disciplinary steps are instituted against him.

The DA will continue to highlight this issue at every opportunity, until something is done to stop the current free-for-all in Dawid Kruiper and to save what is left of the municipal infrastructure and resources.

Issued by Dawid Kruiper municipality, Albie Van Zyl, Cllr