Ad Hoc Committee probes Lazarus Mokgosi municipal appointment

The Ad Hoc Committee probing allegations of improper conduct against North West Premier, Lazarus Mokgosi, has heard how the head of the department of Co-operative Governance had instructed the former acting Chief Director to thoroughly assess the draft report on the appointment of Modisenyane Segapo as the municipal manager of the Naledi Local Municipality.

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The then acting Chief Director for local governance at the department, Elizabeth Mmutle, told the committee that the department head, Dr Ben Bole, returned the report that was prepared for the MEC on Segapo’s recruitment, for further assessment and quality assurance.

Mmutle’s initial report supported Segapo’s appointment as the municipal manager, while the second report that she submitted after further assessment, did not support his appointment.

Elizabeth Mmutle’s testimony was mainly focused on the quality assurance that she conducted on the draft report that was compiled by her colleague, Dithole Moate, who was at the time the Deputy Director. Moate has previously testified before the committee that the Naledi local municipality had submitted incomplete information on the recruitment report that was sent to the department.

Mmutle, who is the Director for municipal finance at the North West department of COGTA, has acknowledged that she did not properly scrutinise the report before submitting it to the head of department.

“I think the HOD indicated to me as to whether I did a thorough check on the report before he can pen his signature. So, I was found wanting in terms of providing an answer because I knew for a fact that I myself didn’t scrutinise the file from the municipality and then I think maybe he wanted to check because of the issue around the timelines,” adds Mmutle.

Mmutle has indicated that she might have committed errors in the first report, as she rushed to complete it due to time constraints.

“That was based on the report of Mr Moate that I initially concurred with the report. I have indicated to honourable members that for the mere fact that he indicated to me the urgency of the report and also considering the fact that Mr Moate has been in that field for quite sometime hence I initially trusted his expertise in this regard that the due process was followed.”

According to Mmutle, its a normal practice to rework recruitment reports from municipalities and reach a different conclusion.

Meanwhile, Premier Lazarus Mokgosi, will appear before the Ad Hoc Committee, on Saturday to conclude his testimony.

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