A senior municipal official has landed a top job at the North West Parks and Tourism Board while on bail on corruption charges related to a dodgy laptop tender in 2018.
Morufa Moloto, who started her job as CFO of the board this month, is due back in court in August.
Her new job also comes a month after she resigned from the Madibeng municipality after being suspended on allegations of financial misconduct unrelated to the laptop case.
The appointment has reunited her with North West economic development, environment, conservation & tourism MEC Bitsa Lenkopane, a former mayor of Kagisano- Molopo municipality, where Moloto was a senior official when she oversaw the procurement of eight laptops for R185,000 in March 2018.
Lenkopane was booted out of the municipality in July 2018 after a vote of no confidence. Moloto, 38, resigned several months later after a precautionary suspension due to misconduct allegations.
She was only criminally charged in connection with the laptop tender in July 2024, while CFO at the Madibeng municipality. She and her partner, Emmanuel Ramoroka, 40, are on R15,000 bail.
Yet Lenkopane this week dismissed concerns over Moloto's appointment, saying it was no-one's business.
"I don't even know how to respond to your questions, because I take it that they're not of public interest,” she told the Sunday Times. “Maybe we should say no comment because we don't know your interest.”
Told that the matter was of public interest as Moloto would be remunerated with public funds, Lenkopane interjected: “You wanted her to work for free?”
Lenkopane declined to respond to questions about whether she was involved in Moloto's recruitment or if she supported her appointment. “If I support or do not support [Moloto's appointment], is that your business?” she said repeatedly.
She accused the Sunday Times of entertaining “gossip” and “tracking and being after me”.
“I am not reporting to media, I'm reporting to the public through so many systems that are in place. However, if media feels that they want me to account, then you must put questions that speak to my work and responsibilities,” Lenkopane said.
“I respect the space of individual's information. I cannot just talk to information that relates to personal information of individuals without permission.”
Moloto resigned from her CFO post at the Madibeng municipality last month after she was suspended in April for financial misconduct in three cases of alleged unlawful deviations during her tenure as acting municipal manager.
She was suspended with two other officials for financial misconduct after she allegedly approved deviations from supply chain processes for an unbudgeted project which cost the municipality R3m.
The other suspended officials were infrastructure & technical services director Ofentse Masilo and human settlements & planning director Walter Phala.
Moloto also faced allegations of failing to conduct due diligence when approving two payments involving work at Brits taxi rank and at a local fire station.
She could not be reached for comment this week. She did not answer phone calls or respond to text and WhatsApp messages.
Madibeng municipality spokesperson Tumelo Tshabalala confirmed that Moloto resigned last month while investigations into financial misconduct allegations were under way.
“Whether the municipality will take any steps against [her] now that she has left, that decision will be made by council,” Tshabalala said.
Moloto was arrested along with Ramoroka in July last year after an investigation by the Hawks’s Serious Commercial Crime Investigation unit. They were charged with corruption for their roles in the awarding of a tender to supply and deliver eight laptops for the municipality based in Ganyesa.
Moloto allegedly awarded the R185,000 tender to Ramoroka's company to supply and deliver the laptops.
At the time of the arrests, Hawks spokesperson Lt-Col Tinyiko Mathebula said investigations uncovered that the tender was awarded to a bidder with the highest quotation. “Upon receiving the funds, the partner allegedly transferred an amount of R150,000 to a company belonging to the municipal official,” Mathebula said.
North West NPA spokesperson Sivenathi Gunya confirmed this week that Moloto and Ramoroka are due to appear in the Vryburg regional court on corruption charges in relation to the laptop deal.
Prof Alex van den Heever, chair of social security system administration and management studies at Wits University's School of Governance, said: “It's highly improper that she [Moloto] was appointed — and so quickly — in another public structure. It's a relatively straightforward matter for government to institute frameworks to prevent such people who are clearly not fit and proper, and not properly vetted.”
Van den Heever said in a proper vetting process the board should take into account that she has been accused of criminality and misconduct related to dishonesty.
“These kinds of people have no place in public office. This suggests that there are networks operating in the North West that are placing people in public authority ... the question is why. At high level of government this is expressly outlawed.
“Anyone on the board that appointed this person should themselves be removed, they themselves can't be fit and proper ... this is part of a deeper problem with simple solutions. The fact that someone is innocent until proven guilty is inadequate as someone with a cloud can't be appointed into public office unless they're cleared.
“If there's been an accusation of misconduct and somebody has resigned, that already creates an inference of impropriety and they shouldn't be appointed to another position. The fact that they didn't conclude that process, you can draw an inference that this person is dishonest.”
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