The mayor of a struggling Mpumalanga municipality swiped more than R200,000 on the council's petrol card and clocked up more than 63,000km in his official vehicle in just eight months.
Municipal records show that William Madileng, mayor of the Dr JS Moroka municipality, has been crisscrossing neighbouring provinces, spending nights at casino hotels in Gauteng, North West and Limpopo.
This is revealed in a dossier submitted to the ANC's Nkangala regional leadership by suspended municipal manager Thami Kubheka.
Madileng said Kubheka was suspended for service delivery issues but did not elaborate. "What prompted [me], within such a short period of time to take this decision and this route? Because Mr Kubheka was defiant, arrogant and defiant," he said.
Madileng said he had asked Kubheka to present a report to council about his findings on issues related to corruption in order to get a mandate for a proper investigation, but council rejected his report on the matter.
The provision of services in the township of Siyabuswa, in KwaMhlanga, came to a standstill this week when residents protested against Madileng's alleged corruption. The municipal offices remained closed and no schooling took place this week.
The municipality is one of the worst-performing in the country, having received an adverse audit finding by the auditor-general, the worst possible, for the past financial year.
But Madileng racked up a R223,669 bill while travelling 63,334km, mostly outside the municipality's jurisdiction, in the council's Audi Q7.
The cost includes R156,424 in fuel and toll fees and a further R67,245 for repairs to the official vehicle.
On one occasion, Madileng spent more than R12,000 at a filling station in Pretoria at midnight. In March this year alone, Madileng travelled 13,460km. He also used the official vehicle to attend the ANC January 8 celebrations in Durban.
This is according to a bank transaction report Kubheka sent to ANC regional secretary Leah Mabuza early this month.
The dossier also details a sad state of affairs in the municipality.
It reports suspected abuse of the municipality's petrol cards, wrongful travel claims by councillors, a water project that has gone wrong due to suspected corruption, and a fishy information and communications technology tender.
Kubheka compiled the dossier. He said Madileng was using his official vehicle to travel to "gambling institutions" in Mpumalanga, North West and Limpopo.
"The mayor has been abusing the municipal staff, and abusing resources both human and capital, in that he takes the municipal employees and goes with them to casinos. They have to sleep over there. He plays casino and he takes the car ... not doing the council work," he said.
"He goes even in the evening ... at Morula Sun, in Limpopo, in Nelspruit. You find that he is not going there for council duty, it's just leisure."
But Madileng rejected the allegations, saying there was no proof that he was visiting the establishments to gamble as the casinos he had visited had hotels.
He said he was entitled to use the council vehicle because of "upper limits" for councillors. "As executive mayor ... my travelling benefits - it's governed by the upper limits," he said.
The Dr JS Moroka municipality was among the municipalities that invested funds in the now-defunct Venda Building Society Mutual Bank, in contravention of a Treasury directive in 2017. Unlike many other investors, the municipality made a profit of more than R500,000. However, the investment has
led to the suspension of its chief financial officer.
— Ignored the directive
"Emnotweni Casino, there is a hotel; Secunda Graceland, there is a hotel; at Polokwane, there is a casino and a hotel. So, how do you distinguish that I was at the casino gambling? Who says I am going to the casino to gamble, because there is a hotel at the casino?"
Madileng said he was also a member of the ANC's provincial executive committee and that his travels were not limited to council business in Siyabuswa only.
"I am saying it's a coincidence, I am saying there is nothing wrong about a coincidence because what is his interest if I go and sleep at [Meropa Casino in Polokwane]?
"There is a casino at Meropa but there is a hotel," he said.
After Kubheka blew the whistle, he was placed on precautionary suspension.
When the Sunday Times visited the small town of Siyabuswa, in Mpumalanga, it had been brought to a standstill as residents blockaded streets.
Businesses had closed down in fear of violent protests while pupils had ditched school to join the protests.
A number of residents had barricaded the main street, which leads to the head offices of the Dr JS Moroka municipal offices.
The civil impasse has been aggravated by ANC internal battles as Mpumalanga province prepares for its electoral conference to elect a new provincial chair.
Madileng is said to be a supporter of Speedy Mashilo, regional chair of the ANC's Nkangala region, who is set to go head-to-head with premier Refilwe Mtsweni for the top job.
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