By Emily Setona
QWAQWA – Executive mayor Masetjhaba Lakaje-Mosia has warned that all people, employees, councillors, ward committees as well as service providers may not get their payments this month end after the sheriff of the court seized most of the municipality’s assets including attaching its bank account.
Lakaje-Mosia said this during the 28th special council meeting May 6, 2024, and she told the councillors to inform their ward committee members that they will receive their stipends when the issue of the frozen bank account has been resolved with the courts.
“The sheriff of the court came to the municipality and took all the properties of the municipality in a visit we were not aware of. This is in relation to a debt of R27 million that the municipality owes Kill Crime security company. The municipality’s bank account was also attached a few days after the property was taken and now the bank account is frozen.
“As councillors you need to inform ward committee members that they will receive their stipends later; the same goes for EPWP workers including the service providers of the municipality. Payments will be made belatedly because we don’t have access to our bank account and we don’t know when it will be unfrozen,” Lakaje-Mosia said.
However, speaker Mandlankosi Dlamini told the council that on Friday he and council chief whip Moeketsi Lebesa attended court proceedings in the Bloemfontein high court where the judge presiding over the case gave an interim order that states that Kill Crime must not sell the assets that have been seized, and that they must not perform any transactions on the municipality’s bank account which is still currently frozen.”
According to the chief whip, the legal dispute between the municipality and Kill Crime is currently pending in court, with the municipality seeking a stay of execution on the order to attach its property and a review of the order.
Kill Crime private security company staff.
“ As the matter is still sub judice, meaning it is currently under judicial consideration, I am unable to comment further on the details of the case or any potential outcomes. We must allow the legal process to unfold and await the court’s ruling before making any further statements or taking any additional actions,” Lebesa said.
The municipality is therefore waiting for a judgement from the court, that will either suspend the action taken by the sheriff of the court on behalf of Kill Crime or allow this court order to stand.
In the meantime, the municipality is without vehicles and assets that are supposed to assist with service delivery, thus leaving the community of Maluti-a-Phofung (MAP) in a precarious position with all its service delivery issues.
