New Tshwane deputy mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya has broken her silence on the allegations that she helped herself to a R10 000 allowance deposited into her account for a cancelled trip to Saudi Arabia in 2020 while she worked as a chief of staff.
Addressing journalists during her visit at Caledonian Stadium this week, she admitted to receiving the amount, saying it was “a lapse of judgment on my part".
This came after Tshwane regional EFF leader Obakeng Ramabodu accused her of misappropriating municipal funds while she was still chief of staff under the then mayor Stevens Mokgalapa.
Speaking during last week's council sitting, Ramabodu said: “We want to test her ethical morals and behaviour. She got the right to say I didn’t honour the trip to Saudi Arabia or I didn’t take the R10 000.
“The municipality has the records. If she then cancelled the trip because of some emergency - we would understand, but why did she take the R10 000?”
The EFF believed the council missed an opportunity to test Moya’s ethical morals and behaviour by not allowing her to give a prompt response.
Moya said: “The trip was confirmed. I confirmed it but the process now has been given to the city manager to go back to our records in 2020 and make sure that he gets the information for the council and make recommendations as to how much I must pay.
“But what I can tell South Africa is that the recommendations will be adhered to; there is no question about that.”
She said the money was paid into her account a week before she pulled out of the trip.
“Now during that time obviously there was a lot of chaos in the city and there was a lapse of judgment on my part. The city also obviously never followed up and so there was never a refusal to return the money,” she said.
She said she was instructed to pull out of the trip because her political principal was coming back from his special leave at the end of January, beginning of February.
"I reported I will no longer be going on the trip to the acting city manager at the time, as well as the chief financial officer. The allowance is usually paid a week before the trip takes place, and when the trip was cancelled I did not pay back the money," she said.
During the council meeting, ANC regional leader Eugene “Bonzo” Modise questioned why Moya could be entrusted with managing billions of rands despite accusations that she defrauded the municipality of R10 000.
“If somebody can misuse R10 000 and she is given the opportunity to manage R20 billion the City will be in much bigger financial problems than it is now,” he said.
Pretoria News