Drakenstein Municipality has rejected claims by Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture Gayton McKenzie that it is among the municipalities that allegedly used funding from his department to pay municipal salaries.
The municipality this week labelled the claims as “wild and irresponsible” and said it will report McKenzie’s conduct as Member of Parliament and the National Executive.
McKenzie spoke to the media during the 50th celebrations of the Afrikaans Language Museum and Monument in Paarl this weekend, where he also said his department had withdrawn all forms of sport and recreation funding from Drakenstein.
During a brief interaction with the media McKenzie was asked to what extent his national department is intervening to address the state of municipal sport facilities.
“The reason for the poor state of municipal sport facilities in Drakenstein is because Drakenstein, like many other municipalities, over the years used its sport budget to pay municipal salaries.
“These were funds that, for example, should have been used for maintenance, and then utilised for that purpose. They have been doing this for many years.
“That has been stopped since I have been appointment and will never happen again,” McKenzie said.
He added; “There has been no consequence management. But now, we will not give you money if you are not able to show what you have done with funds you previously received”.
Drakenstein Municipality’s deputy mayor Gert Combrink, who is also responsible for finance on the mayor committee, said; “The Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture’s claim that Drakenstein Municipality allocated funding earmarked for sport infrastructure to salaries is a blatant lie”.
“In fact, his allegation is not only unfounded and unsubstantiated, but also wild and irresponsible.
“Drakenstein Municipality does not need funding from National Government to pay our salaries. We pay our salaries every month, on time, and don’t need to use grants to do that.
“We are not sure which grants the minister is referring to, since his department has not provided Drakenstein Municipality with any grant funding for sport infrastructure or maintenance,” Combrink told Paarl Post.
He said any funding to a municipality by another organ of state must be formally gazetted.
“We challenge the minister to provide a copy of that Gazette. He therefore cannot withdraw what was never allocated to Drakenstein Municipality in the first instance.
“The truth is that minister Gayton McKenzie is angry with Drakenstein Municipality. The Minister wanted to abuse his power and position as a national minister to erect an outdoor gym in a Drakenstein Municipality ward that the party that he represents, the Patriotic Alliance (PA), recently won. He wanted to dictate to the municipality that this gym, funded by taxpayers’ money, should be erected in Ward 27,” Combrink said.
He said when the municipality proposed a ward in Mbekweni as suitable for the gym instead, as aligned with its Integrated Development Plan (IDP), “the minister decided to launch this attack on the municipality”.
“It is a sour-grapes effort by the PA to discredit the Municipality and its leadership. He abused the platform in Paarl to promote his party-political agenda.
“The minister is clearly confused with his position as a national minister and political party leader. We regard this as an attempt to unlawfully direct government funding for party-political purposes.
“This, together with his remarks, is a breach of the codes of conduct for a Member of the National Executive as well as Members of Parliament. We will report this conduct accordingly,” Combrink added.
