The controversial mayor of a troubled Free State municipality has allegedly been caught soliciting financial support from a local businessperson to fund her trip to the ANC’s roll call for its councillors.

In a recording circulating on WhatsApp in the area, Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality Mayor Malekula Melato can be heard begging for money to fund her trip to the roll call, which was held on Monday at the FNB Stadium in Nasrec, Johannesburg.

Melato referred enquiries to the municipality’s spokesperson, Thabo Kessah, who said the mayor confirmed that it is her voice on the voice note, and she erroneously sent it to the WhatsApp group that was set up for the roll call preparations.

“The message was intended for her husband,” Kessah said.

In the voice note, she explained in a mixture of isiZulu and English: “Hello baba, I am saying I have challenges. Like I have said, we are going to Johannesburg over the weekend on Sunday for an ANC meeting. All of us, all councillors in the country, so the arrangement is that all councillors are booked in one place, 28 of us, we are booked in one place.”

Melato continued: “But baba, I don’t want to go and sleep there; I cannot be booked with councillors, and I’m found wanting, so I’m asking for help around that. Can you deposit something so that I can take care of myself?”

She added that when she said “take care”, she meant she was with her bodyguards.

“This is what I indicated I wanted to tell you yesterday, there was someone I was waiting for yesterday, but he never pitched up, that person never pitched up, so I am asking for your help,” Melato told the businessperson, whose identity is yet to be confirmed.

The DA in the municipality said this was an internal ANC matter and would not be commenting.

At the roll call, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the ANC often just talks about corruption and the non-delivery of services, but rarely speaks about the vast opportunities that exist at the local government level and hardly ever speaks about the good work that many of its almost 5,000 councillors are doing in their councils across the country.

During the weekend’s ANC special national executive committee meeting, he said municipal oversight structures should vigilantly monitor budgets, service delivery, and corruption.

“They should also work to avoid corruption. Transparency in local decision-making should strengthen trust in government, political parties, elected leaders, the democracy project, and reduce alienation of citizens,” Ramaphosa said.

He added that one of the key problems identified as debilitating the functioning of municipalities is the continued practice of unauthorised, irregular,  fruitless, and wasteful expenditure, as well as corruption.

“All too regularly, corruption, mismanagement, and an unacceptable lack of consequence management and accountability allow dysfunctionality to continue with impunity, thus prolonging the suffering of people living in the affected communities,” Ramaphosa explained.

According to the ANC leader, the party needs to be bold in taking action to resolve the dysfunctionality and local government by dealing with the elephant in the room of corruption and malfeasance.

“Where anyone who is deployed or appointed abuses the people’s resources through malfeasance or corruption, they must be removed from the roles they play,” Ramaphosa threatened.

loyiso.sidimba@inl.co.za

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