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Limpopo mayor’s rented Range Rover costs R150K per month

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Range Rover
Range Rover

Capricorn district municipality in Limpopo is spending just over R150 000 per month on a rented luxury Range Rover for its mayor and it finds the amount cheaper when compared with maintaining an old mayoral vehicle.

If this car is kept for six months, it would cost the municipality over R900 000.

Would the municipality still call this cheap? This remains to be seen with the municipality still not sure when Mayor John Mpe’s new car will arrive.

Processes to procure a new car had just got underway with a council resolution only taken last week.

Municipal spokesperson Moffat Senyatsi insisted Capricorn was “actually spending less on rental instead of spending more on maintaining the Jeep [old mayoral vehicle]”.

This emerged after DA councillor Ngako Setjie wrote a letter containing eight questions on the mayoral vehicle to council Speaker Nakedi Lekganyane. The letter was signed as received by the latter on October 27.

Senyatsi said a council resolution to purchase a new mayoral vehicle was taken on November 3, which was eight days after Setjie’s letter was received.

Senyatsi said Mpe had been using the rented Range Rover since September, which was almost two months before a council resolution was taken to purchase a new vehicle for him.

“They only came to the council to seek a resolution to buy a new vehicle for the mayor a week after they received my questions, but before then, it was all quiet. Now I find out that the Range Rover was costing us this much. Imagine what R150 000 could do in our underdeveloped and poor communities,” Setjie said.

“My suspicions were triggered when I realised the mayor was now using a Range Rover and not the Jeep Cherokee used by his predecessor. I wanted to know where the resolution came from to get this new car.”

In response to Setjie, Capricorn municipal manager Thuso Nemugumoni said the Jeep had reached 120 000km and was out of its maintenance plan.

He added that it was “expensive to maintain the vehicle, which had also been involved in two accidents with the previous executive mayor”.

Setjie said as someone who also served in the previous council, it was the first time he had heard of any accident with the Jeep.

“I am not aware of any accidents the car has reportedly been in because such were never reported to the council. I am still pressing ahead seeking answers to questions around the decision to rent another vehicle and a full report on those accidents,” he said.

In response to City Press’ question on the decision to park the Jeep and rent a Range Rover for the mayor, Senyatsi did not mention any accident like the municipal manager did.

“From the day he was inaugurated, [Mpe] used the Jeep until it reached its prescribed maximum mileage of 120 000km and the lapse of maintenance and warranty plans, as per the municipal fleet policy, which expressly states that a car that is kept on the road beyond that mileage becomes unreliable and it might compromise the mayor’s safety,” he said.

“Because of its current condition, the wear and tear and the potential risks associated with its electronic system, the car might cost the council too much to maintain. The municipality is actually spending less on rental, instead of spending more on maintaining the Jeep.”

Setjie would, however, not agree to this.

“If the maintenance of an old vehicle is that costly, why did they wait until I asked about the rented one before seeking a council resolution to buy the mayor a new car? If this process had been initiated earlier, how much money could have been saved already?” he asked.

“Procedures were not followed when they entered into a contract to rent a vehicle without the council’s resolution to that effect.”

Nemugumoni said a council resolution was “not applicable” and was “acquired as the vehicle was not procured”, but Setjie chooses to differ. He said the rental was funded from the fleet management budget.

The municipal manager told Setjie that the car was rented on a month-to-month basis and the “rental amount is R153 404”.

Meanwhile, Senyatsi was not sure when the mayor’s new car would arrive. Only then will the rented Range Rover be returned.

He said the municipality was also in the process of selling the Jeep.


Poloko Tau
Journalist
City Press
p:+27 11 713 9001
w:www.citypress.co.za  e: poloko.tau@citypress.co.za
      


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