Rustenburg Municipality’s manager Bheki Khenisa was saved from suspension by opposition parties who staged a walk-out at a special council meeting on Friday.

The meeting collapsed after opposition parties walked-out and about seven African National Congress councillors followed them.

Opposition parties were opposed to Khenisa’s suspension.

He has been charged with misconduct relating to the unspent conditional grants from Treasury.

After a lengthy deliberation in a closed meeting, Executive Mayor Mpho Khunou tabled a motion of precautionary suspending against the municipal manger.

Khunou sought approval from the council on the allegations levelled against Khenisa as well as for the appointment of an investigator from external legal firm within seven days.

The appointed investigator would then be expected to finalise the investigation within 30 days and provide a report.

Democratic Alliance councillor Matebesi Mohube told the meeting the DA was against the suspension of the municipal manager and they would not be part of the meeting resolving on the suspension.

DA councillors walked out and they were followed by members of the United Christian Democratic Party (UCDP), Congress of the People (Cope), and African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP).

Holding the right people accountable 

The ANC was left alone but, soon after opposition parties walked out, Rocky Malebana-Metsing said he too did not agree with the suspension and therefore he would not be part of the meeting. Six other ANC councilors said they too do not agree with the suspension and would like to be excused from the meeting.

The special meeting was adjourned as it did not have a required numbers of councillors to proceed.

The municipality did not spend conditional grants amounting to R426.9m.

The municipality applied for the unspent money to be rolled over but, national treasury rejected the application on the basis that the Rustenburg municipality was requesting  for roll over for Public Transport Infrastructure Infrastructure Grant (PTIG) and Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) for the third consecutive time respectively.

Treasury wanted the municipality to return any unspent conditional grants by October 23.

The DA said it was against Khenisa’s suspension because they believed Khunou and the municipality’s chief financial officer should be held responsible for not spending the money.

They party wanted to table a motion of no confidence against the mayor in the next council sitting.

–News24wire