Dear Editor
In trying to sidestep accountability for the R777 million spent by the City of Tshwane on water tankers in formalised areas in the 2024/25 financial year, Mayor Nasiphi Moya’s account of events raises more serious questions.
When News24 initially broke the story of a 455% increase in water tanker expenditure in the financial year Moya took office, a spokesperson of the city blamed the extra water tanker spending on a prolonged Rand Water outage in July 2024.
A few days later ActionSA member of the mayoral committee Kholofelo Morudi, appearing on the Aubrey Masango show on 702, called the News24 report ‘fake news’. The Mayor’s latest account doesn’t deny excessive spend, but blames a portion of this on previous administrations.
Moya wants us to believe that upon taking office the ANC/EFF/ActionSA coalition discovered a pile of water tanker invoices from previous financial years, which they then dutifully decided to pay as a matter of good financial management.
But where did these invoices suddenly come from? Did the City have purchase orders confirming that the services were required by the City and delivered by service providers before making payments?
According to information provided to the DA by a source with access to the municipality’s financial records, the City only has purchase orders for R381 million of the R777 million spent on water tankers in the 2024/25 financial year – less than half.
If water tanker invoices were paid without documentary proof that the money was due, it raises the possibility of large-scale fraud in the form of fake invoices for services either not requested or delivered.
One of the changes made by Tshwane in the 2024 financial year to comply with adverse findings of the auditor-general was that invoices would henceforth no longer be paid without pre-existing purchase orders.
Without such a practice a supplier can demand to be paid for work, even if there was no proof that the work was actually requisitioned by the City or in fact delivered. It would seem that the rule of no ‘purchase orders, no payment’ was discontinued under Moya’s watch.
The DA will today file a complaint with the Public Protector (PP) in which we will ask for an investigation into the possible payment of unverified water tanker invoices by Tshwane in the 2025 financial year. This is a form of maladministration which we believe to be within the purview of PP’s investigative powers.
Regards
Ald Cilliers Brink
DA Tshwane Mayoral Candidate