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The cash-strapped Sedibeng District Municipality has increased its budget to purchase the Executive Mayor, Cllr Lerato Maloka, a luxurious vehicle worth R700 000, despite residents facing serious service delivery challenges, such as access to proper sanitation and tarred roads.

This information was disclosed in the report tabled during the Sedibeng District Council meeting.
According to the report, the municipal capital expenditure budget for the 2023/2024 financial year will increase by R700,000 to make provision for the Executive Mayor’s vehicle because of the high-cost maintenance of her old Mercedes and car rentals becoming expensive and unfeasible to maintain.

This is shocking as this municipality is in a financial crisis and unable to provide constant basic services to its residents, and hence cannot afford to spend money on a luxury vehicle that is unnecessary and a waste of ratepayers' money.

This is not the first time Cllr Maloka has ridden on the backs of Sedibeng residents. In 2022, the DA discovered that the R696 611.99 Mercedes-Benz GLB (X247) that was purchased for her was gathering dust at the municipality's offices after she allegedly refused to use it, claiming it was not per her specifications. The same unwanted car broke down due to a foreign substance, allegedly sugar granules, found in the engine, estimated to cost the municipality R398 000 to repair.

The mayor has cost the financially collapsing municipality of Sedibeng R140 000 in vehicle expenses in less than three years. This money would have been better spent on fixing pothole-ridden roads and poor sanitation, as raw sewerage is flowing all over the streets from the main sewer system because the municipality is failing to repair sewer lines.

The mayor must reconsider her priorities; she cannot continue to put her interests ahead of those she is constitutionally obliged to serve.

The DA will table follow-up questions to the Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Mzi Khumalo, to ascertain whether a probe into the foreign substance found in the unwanted mayor's car has been launched and if anyone has been held accountable. We will also ask the MEC if it was cost-effective for the municipality to buy a new vehicle for the mayor rather than repair the old one.

The Sedibeng municipality's disregard for residents and their service delivery is unacceptable. It is time to remove the current government from power and replace it with the DA, the only party that embodies good governance and whose leaders are committed to serving and not being served by the people of Gauteng.

Issued by Kingsol Chabalala MPL - DA Emfuleni North Constituency Head