The Kumkani Mhlontlo Local Municipality, which has garnered the media spotlight recently after placing its CFO on precautionary suspension for alleged reinstating some employees on the Vodacom network without authorisation from her superiors, apparently owes the service provider more than R4m.
This is despite officially terminating the contract, which had been running since 2019, on October 2024 in favour of MTN.
The Dispatch, however, has seen a final letter of demand sent to the municipality by Vodacom on April 1 2025, demanding outstanding payment of R4,575,064.84 from the beleaguered local authority that “needs to be paid within the next two days”.
Mhlontlo CFO Nandipha Sibobi was placed on precautionary suspension by the council last week for allegedly deceiving it.
Municipal spokesperson Mamela Mangcotywa said her suspension was linked to concerns around the municipality’s contractual engagements with cellphone network providers and that following the expiration of a previous contract, the municipality had appointed a new service provider.
However, it was later discovered that some councillors and officials had been reinstated with Vodacom allegedly “under the directive of the CFO, raising governance concerns”.
The Dispatch has also seen the copy of the letter signed by municipal manager Lungile Ndabeni in October 2024, informing Vodacom of the termination of the contract for the provision of cellphones and data.
“The contract between Vodacom and the municipality for the provision of cellphone and data contracts was formally terminated by the municipality on 30 September 2024,” Ndabeni wrote.
“The contract commenced on or about May 19 2019 and was due to terminate on May 31 2021, however, it seems to have continued well beyond its term.”
In another letter dated January 26 2025, Ndabeni wrote to MTN informing it of its appointment to provide mobile services for a period of 60 months and that Mhlontlo had nominated Sibobi to be the administrator of the MTN account.
“Her role will be to administer the account and liaise with your good office pertaining the operations of the account,” he stated.
Sibobi, who described the suspension as unfair and unprocedural, has previously protested her innocence, saying the decision had nothing to do with the contract but was about the awarding of MIG (municipal infrastructure grant) tenders.
She claimed she was seen as a stumbling block to the awarding of lucrative tenders to friends and close allies, something which was vehemently denied by Ndabeni.
It was also reported that a private law firm commissioned to investigate the Vodacom contract had found that it was never advertised and that some junior officials had received expensive phones while about 444 lines with Vodacom that the municipality was paying for, could not be accounted for as they belonged to people who had long left the municipality.
It was also reported that some employees who were experiencing challenges after being moved to MTN due to limited network coverage, had angrily confronted Sibobi at work recently.
Questions were sent to Mangcotywa about the issue of the controversial contract. She had not responded by the time of publication.
But the Dispatch has seen a scathing letter written to council speaker Eddie Pula by UDM councillor Zakheni Nondaka this week, demanding his intervention in the matter.
Nondaka wrote: “This is to kindly request your office to urgently intervene in this nonsensical act of suspending our lines by the municipality or Vodacom.
“Speaker, these cellphones are not ornaments or toys, but tools of trade, meaning each and every month, the municipality is deducting a gazetted amount of money to pay the service provider towards these tools of trade.
“For them to be suspended or just shut down without communication whenever one feels so, is just to undermine the councillors but also to violate communication channels.”
Nondaka said, as the UDM, they were disgusted by what he described as poor and inept administration and leadership in the municipality.
He said this validated their calls for co-operative governance MEC Zolile Williams to institute an investigation into the dealings of the municipality.
“This has led us to be unable to perform our duties because of suspended lines of our cellphones.
“Speaker, we have a constitutional responsibility to serve our people. We therefore demand that your office must address this matter within 48 hours of receiving this communiqué.”
Failure to do so could force the UDM to seek a legal route, Nondaka warned.
Daily Dispatch
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