Bangwaketse reject Bathoen trust audit
Tsaone Basimanebotlhe | Monday October 24, 2016 18:00
At a high charged meeting at the Kanye main Kgotla on Friday, Morafe accused Bathoen trust board of corruption and mismanagement.
The meeting had in attendance leaders such as former minister Peter Siele, MP for Kanye North and Minister of Agriculture Patrick Ralotsia, MP for Kanye South Abram Kesupile, Southern District Council chairperson Mephato Reatile, his deputy Alec Seametso, District Commissioner Mompoloki Raletobana, and police bosses.
Among the vocal and discontent leaders was Seametso who noted that according to the trust constitution the meeting is supposed to be chaired by board chairman “not the chief or kgosana. The board has been there for 12 years or more without being elected. The constitution says the board should be elected after every five years and is supposed to give us report every two months without fail. The board has failed to do that”. He said things have not done well and that is the reason why the board had failed to give Morafe the report seven days before the Kgotla meeting, as per constitutional requirement.
“People should comment on the report that they had read,” he said. Morulaganyi Letshwao suggested that a task team should be formed to look at the audit report and the answers given by board when answering questions from auditors.
“Proper procedures should be followed. Again the assets for the tribe should be listed and be known by the tribe,” Letshwao said.
Senior council accountant, Gomolemo Mokgetshane told the meeting that they had encountered challenges when they did the audit.
“We were not given all necessary things that we needed as auditors. Lots of things were not done well by the board,” he said, giving an example of a entry which showed that during a period of two months in 2011, five meetings were held and a total amount of P9, 569.00 was paid as sitting allowance for six members. Furthermore, 2013 an amount of P40, 866.00 was paid out as sitting allowances of board members “during meetings which sometimes did not form quorum,” Mokgetshane said.
She said some of the money was deposited in the account but it is not clear where the money came from.
The meeting agreed that after two weeks, a new board be elected at a meeting to discuss the audit. The Bathoen trust was formed in 2001 to generate funds for Bangwaketse. The trust owns ranches around Lobatse, Kanye and other properties as such Ramatea vocational and technical college.