The municipal manager of the Thulamela Municipality, Mr Hlengani Maluleke, was placed under precautionary suspension on Monday. Maluleke appeared in court the previous week in connection with transactions he authorised to deposit money with the fraud-ridden VBS Mutual Bank.
The decision to suspend Maluleke was taken during a special council meeting on Monday. At the same meeting, the municipality's senior manager of planning, Mr Masala Makumule, was appointed as acting municipal manager. Maluleke was given seven days to furnish the municipal council with reasons why he should not be suspended.
Maluleke and the former Thulamela mayor, Cllr Avhashoni Tshifhango, appeared in court on Tuesday, 8 February, on corruption charges. The case concerns the R30 million investment made in the now-liquidated VBS Mutual Bank. The two were released on bail of R30 000 each and the case was postponed to 24 May, when they will have to appear again in the Specialised Commercial Crimes Court in Polokwane.
The secretary of the ANC in the Vhembe region, Mr Rudzani Ludere, said that the region welcomed the suspension of the municipal manager. "We think it is a step in the right direction in terms of rooting out all forms corruption and malfeasance," he said.
Cllr Khakhathi Tshisikule of the International Revelation Congress (IRC) said that his organisation accepted the suspension of the MM, pending the investigations. "But we suspect some hidden agendas," he said. Tshisikule accused the ruling party of being more involved in infighting than in service delivery.
The convenor of the South African Youth Council in Vhembe, Mr Ernest Gogome, said that they were delighted that Maluleke had eventually been suspended. "We want his disciplinary hearing to be fast-tracked," he said. "We can't have a municipal manager who is so arrogant to his employer that he even threatens them with a court order, forgetting that he was deployed," Gogome said.
The spokesperson of the Thulamela Municipality, Mr Nndwamato Tshiila, confirmed that the council had taken a resolution to suspend the municipal manager until such time as the investigation into his conduct was finalised.