The Democratic Alliance (DA) caucus in the Greater Tzaneen Municipality (GTM) will ensure that an urgent investigation is conducted into GTM’s failure to enforce its credit control bylaws and policies in a timely manner regarding the Old Checkers building, where possible negligence resulted in a staggering R29 million financial loss.
We will also bring this matter to the attention of the Auditor-General, as a municipality’s failure to collect outstanding debt constitutes financial mismanagement and a contravention of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) and the Municipal Systems Act.
The building was left abandoned for years with the owner owing GTM millions for rates and service charges.
It appears that due to prolonged inaction, the municipality was forced to write off approximately R29 million in outstanding municipal debt. Following a court-declared insolvency of the previous owner, GTM only recovered R6.5 million, as its claim was restricted to debts from the last two years. This represents a severe financial blow to the municipality and raises serious questions about governance failures.
We also demand to know who represented the municipality at the property auction and whether sufficient efforts were made to secure a better financial outcome.
The DA has repeatedly requested, in various municipal meetings, a paper trail detailing the steps taken to recover this debt, including why credit control measures were not enforced in accordance with the Municipal Systems Act, the MFMA, and GTM’s own bylaws and policies; and who is responsible for this governance and financial oversight failure.
At a recent special Council meeting we managed to ensure that our request for a formal investigation was recorded in the minutes.
This case highlights a disturbing pattern of legal delinquency, policy neglect, and a lack of transparency, accountability, and consequence management within GTM. R29 million could have been used to fix infrastructure or improve service delivery—instead, it has been written off due to poor governance.
The DA will continue to apply pressure to ensure a full investigation takes place. We will not allow poor governance and financial negligence to rob the residents of Greater Tzaneen of the services they rightfully deserve.