New Vhembe mayor ‘ousts municipal manager’

Newly-appointed Vhembe District Municipality mayor Miyelani “Mabanana” Chauke has reportedly moved to force the resignation of his municipal manager.

The manager, Norman Kutama – often called “MM” by staff and friends – is reported to have resigned on Friday.

It comes amid allegations that Mabanana and his political allies grilled Kutama during a 7 August special council meeting held over a series of serious allegations of financial misconduct.

A senior politician within the council told The Citizen that Kutama was grilled on how the municipality allegedly incurred irregular, wasteful, and unauthorised expenditure amounting to hundreds of millions of rands.

“In light of this, our political leadership wrote a letter to the office of Limpopo Premier Dr Phophi Ramathuba, who is also the ANC provincial chairperson, alerting her of the council’s intention to dismiss the municipal manager.

“They told the premier that under Kutama’s tenure, the municipal manager failed to provide answers to serious issues such as failure to complete projects, stalled bulk water projects with variation orders, questionable appointment of contractors, taking workers to court without council approval, and appointing service providers with expired documentation, among many other irregularities,” alleged the source.

Kutama had not yet responded to The Citizen‘s media enquiry about his reported resignation. The publication has also requested a copy of the resignation letter. All responses will be published once received.

EFF get involved

EFF Limpopo deputy provincial chairperson, Anton Mathumba, who is also a member of the municipal council, said he had questioned a report on irregular expenditure in June for the fourth quarter of the 2024/25 financial year.

“The report was tabled before council on 7 August 2026. Council was asked to approve R29.7-million in irregular expenditure, but refused and referred the matter to the Municipal Public Accounts Committee [MPAC] for investigation,” Mathumba said.

He said the EFF demanded that the meeting be postponed until the municipal manager provides council with all supporting documents.

“We raised serious concerns about millions paid to firms appointed without proper evaluation processes, as well as controversial payments to two consulting companies.

“The questionable payments were made to the two companies despite knowing very well that they were not tax-compliant,” he claimed.

He alleged that the two companies received payments totalling R10.2 million and R14.8 million between May and June.

Matumba claimed the issue was raised with the mayor and the council, but their concerns were ignored. He said what the EFF want now is for all the companies and everyone involved to be investigated and held to account.

‘Enough is enough’

He said after years of council calling the authority to account, “that is when we drew the line and said enough is enough”.

“In light of his resignation, we can confirm that it is good riddance. We welcome his stance and say it is time we have a good manager to manage this institution on behalf of all the people of Venda and of Limpopo,” he said.

Council meeting

Municipal spokesperson Moses Shibambu could neither confirm nor deny Kutama’s resignation.

“I may not respond to your enquiry now. This is because I was not briefed about what you are asking. I will wait for the office of the municipal manager to brief me before I can give you the municipality’s position on the matter,” he said.

But according to a text message, purportedly from the office of the council speaker and seen by The Citizen, a council meeting has been scheduled for Monday.

“It is in this meeting where the council will be notified about the municipal manager’s resignation and the appointment of an acting municipal manager,” a municipal source told The Citizen.