The iconic movie Groundhog Day sees the protagonist trapped in a time loop forcing him to relive the same day over-and-over again. Reading the news year-in-and-year-out about the shenanigans at Buffalo City Metro has one feeling much the same way. Almost every story carries a sense of dreadful déjà vu.
The “verbal” agreement was reportedly not honoured. Who knows why? Perhaps some bureaucrat who was actually aware of the prescripts of the Municipal Finance Management Act decided that dishing out R2.2m on the basis of a ‘nod and a wink’ was likely unlawful.
In fact, BCM admits as much in court papers where it argues the oral agreement was invalid because proper and transparent procurement processes were not followed, there was political interference and the officials involved lacked authority. The offended party, Matiti, resorted to court and obtained a default judgment against BCM for the ‘debt’. A default judgment could only have been granted in favour of Matiti if BCM failed to show up to defend the claim.
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Again, who knows why. Armed with his order, Matiti must have demanded – and been refused – payment. So, as is his right, he obtained the services of the sheriff to seize 22 vehicles from BCM including trucks, bakkies and traffic law enforcement vehicles – all essential to service delivery and road safety.
What a mess. The metro rather belatedly resorted to court in a bid to rescind the default judgment it claims was improperly obtained. Hardly surprisingly, the high court declined to hear it on an urgent basis.
After all, the metro has known about the default judgment since November last year and has done nothing. And so, if the metro cannot get a stay of execution, its 22 vehicles will be sold off to settle the judgment debt. A debt that likely should never have been incurred.
But none of this is new. BCM’s unusual way of dishing out sports sponsorships has come under scrutiny several times. In 2017, a damning report following a forensic investigation found evidence of serious non-compliance with the law, financial misconduct and “ghost” events.
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