In a letter to Our Times on 15 February, DA MP Elza van Lingen asks a few awkward questions about the involvement of former mayor, Robbie Dennis and present ANC Councillor, Earl Hill in the affairs of the Jeffreys Bay Community Trust.
It appears that the original owners of the Fountains Development gave the trust an amount of R931 326 over a period of five years.
The trust was supposed to have been administered by the municipality. As such, the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) requires that all moneys should have been banked in the name of the municipality and controlled by the municipal manager as the accounting officer.
However, this was not done and the trust operated as a private entity.
Dennis and Hill were involved in the affairs of the trust for which they had been paid salaries totalling R297 000. This left an amount of R653 326 unaccounted for.
“So where did the money go?” she asks. “There is no evidence that any community development project received any money from the trust. It is in the public interest for us to be informed what happened to the funds and who benefited from the trust.”
According to a municipal spokesman both Dennis and Hill declared their interests in the trust.
“This,” Van Lingen says, “will also be probed as our information is the complete opposite.”
In view of the perceived mismanagement of the Trust, Van Lingen questions Hill’s trustworthiness as chairman of the municipal oversight committee. This also applies to the municipal public accounts committee on which he serves.
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