• Invoices and fuel cards seen by GroundUp suggest that the mayor of Nketoana Local Municipality in the Free State travelled nearly 7 000 km in one month.
• She appears to have spent nearly R100 000 on car hire and fuel.
• According to the Auditor-General, the municipality suffered a net loss of R170 million for the period ended 30 June 2023, and its liabilities exceeded its assets by R740 million.

The mayor of Nketoana Local Municipality in the Free State appears to have spent about R100 000 on a rented car in a single month.

According to an invoice seen by GroundUp, mayor Mamiki Mokoena travelled 6 943km between 18 May and 18 June this year in a rented Toyota Fortuner. 

The invoice from Avis suggests that she was billed R64 893 for rent on the car for the month, GroundUp reported. 

Records suggest that about R34 000 was spent on the mayor’s fuel card over the period.

This follows two accidents in which the mayor’s cars, owned by the municipality, were written off.

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In August 2021, Mokoena’s BMW 4 Series was involved in an accident. 

The mayor then appears to have rented a car until August 2023, when a new Haval H9 was bought for her.

According to a source in the municipality, R850 000 was spent on car hire in the time between August 2021 and August 2023.

The new car was involved in an accident in November 2023, and since then the mayor has been renting a car again, first a Ford Everest and then a Fortuner.

Fuel transactions on the records GroundUp has seen do not make sense. 

For instance, on 18 May 2024 the car was filled with 67.1 litres of fuel. The odometer reading stood at 19 800km. 

Two days later, on 20 May, the car was filled again with 53.9 litres of fuel, but the odometer reading was 19 900km, suggesting the car had only been driven 100km.

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The records also show that on 21 July, the odometer reading was 20 804km and 64.45 litres of fuel was put in the tank in Pretoria at a cost of R1 382.65. 

The next time fuel was purchased was three days later, on 24 July. On this date, when 76.6 litres of fuel was bought for R1 665.05 in Heilbron, the odometer reading was 20 764km, which was 40km less than previously.

Additionally, the mayor appears to have spent almost the entire month of July in Gauteng. 

Between 30 June and 7 August, fuel was purchased either in Pretoria or Westdene, with the exception of 24 July, when a fuel purchase was made in Heilbron in the Free State, although Heilbron is outside Nketoana Local Municipality.

Asked to comment, the mayor’s advisor Phillip Nkomo said the municipality was working on buying her a new car.

“We are going to use the money paid by insurance to buy a new car. We are waiting for the supply chain process, and that could take eight weeks,” he said.

Asked to explain the mayor’s expenses, Nkomo asked who supplied the information to GroundUp.

He said:

“It is not good to always write bad things about the mayor. You should remember she is a mother to someone and ruining her reputation affects the kids. I will check with the mayor and come back to you on the issues of the invoice and respond after,” he said.

On 21 August, Nkomo called GroundUp, with municipal manager Mokete Nhlapo also on the line. 

Nhlapo promised to send the information on the invoices before the end of the day but did not do so. 

GroundUp called both of them back on 22 August, but they did not answer their phones. 

A message was left on Nkomo’s mobile device via WhatsApp but he ignored it.

Councillor Diphapang Mofokeng said the DA had asked for an accident report and details of the costs of the rented vehicle, but the municipality had failed to produce the information.

He said the DA also wanted confirmation that the car had been used on municipal business. He said the logbook had not been properly kept.

According to the Auditor-General’s report on the Nketoana Local Municipality, the municipality declared R480 million in irregular expenditure for the 2022/23 financial year and R427 million in irregular expenditure in the 2021/22 financial year.

The report notes that due to “the status of the accounting records”, there was insufficient audit evidence to confirm the stated amount, as the municipality did not include the required information on irregular expenditure as per the Municipal Finance Management Act. 

The report also notes that R15.8 million in expenditure was incurred in contravention of supply chain management requirements, thus the municipality understated its irregular expenditure by this amount. 

In the 2021/22 financial year, R56 million was spent in contravention of supply chain management requirements.

There was almost R1 billion (R980 million) in unauthorised expenditure in the 2022/23 financial year, up from R811 million in unauthorised expenditure in 2021/22.

Again, the report notes there was insufficient audit evidence to confirm the amount stated.

The municipality suffered a net loss of R170 million for the period ended 30 June 2023, and its liabilities exceeded its assets by R740 million.

There was also R47.6 million in fruitless and wasteful expenditure in the 2022/23 financial year, which was due to interest and penalties on overdue accounts.