Publications
Partners
When premier Supra Mahumapelo’s advisor, advocate Raphepheng Mataka, is seen at the offices of the ANC’s chief whip in the North West legislature, chances are that someone is going to get fired.
For years it has been his job to prosecute disciplinary cases for the ANC, as well as advising on policy and new laws.
However, a forensic firm in 2010 found that Mataka had no contractual agreement with the Office of the Chief Whip.
It concluded that Mataka’s law firm submitted “seemingly fraudulent” invoices to the Office of the Chief Whip during the period under review, totaling more than R300 000.
This was in contravention of “the stipulations of the Law Society Rules and good accounting practices” said the report.
His contract was subsequently terminated in September 2009, according to the report.
But the return of Mahumapelo as ANC provincial chairperson in 2011 saw Mataka later making a comeback at the legislature.
Mataka said this week that forensic firm KNT’s investigation was “shallow and opened up the firm to litigation”.
The KNT forensic report was subsequently ignored, City Press heard.
Instead another report was commissioned under Sizwe Ntsaluba Gobodo to look into allegations of financial mismanagement in the chief whip’s office between 2012 and 2013.
At least four senior managers have been fired by Mataka as a result of the Gobodo report after it was finalised in 2013, City Press heard.
But the allegations of fraudulent invoices and exorbitant rates have come back to haunt Mataka.
Disgruntled ANC staff members have questioned the relationship between Mataka and current chief whip Hoffman Galeng.
Galeng said this week the reports were unfortunate because he was only the whip when the cases referred to were handled by Mataka.
He said Mataka got a contract with his office in 2013, before he became chief whip, and the rates he charged were agreed to at that time. He said he had only used Mataka’s services in two cases since he became chief whip.
Galeng said a senior manager who Mataka later fired had questioned why the ANC should pay Mataka for a full day’s work when he had only sat in a disciplinary case for an hour and it was postponed.
Galeng said there was no chance that the ANC would have won the matter in court because Mataka was booked out for the whole day.
The ANC’s office in the North West legislature appears to be fraught with allegations of financial mismanagement over the years.
Both the KNT and Gobodo reports detail evidence of officials and workers regularly soliciting money from local businesspeople in the name of the ANC, tonnes of alcohol bought in the name of the caucus, fraudulent travel claims, as well as fraudulent and exorbitant payments made to people linked to senior ANC leaders.
City Press reported in January last year that Galeng had spent R11 000 on Nando’s and KFC, R79 000 on groceries, more than R100 000 on petrol and rental cars, and six different swipes for fuel in just one day, using the ANC’s legislature credit card.
Read: ANC chief whip in North West’s R225 000 spending spree
Galeng said the spending spree allegations were a smear camapign.
