City of uMhlathuze defends luxury car purchase

AFTER an attack from the DA, the City of uMhlathuze has defended its decision to purchase a luxury new vehicle as a ‘mayoral fleet back-up’.

The objection was raised after the item appeared on the Exco agenda, requesting to replace a Nissan double cab with a Toyota Fortuner 2.8 diesel 4×4.

DA Councillor Louis Fourie questioned the reason for the purchase and was given the response that the vehicle would be used while others in the mayoral fleet were in for services, thus doing away with the cost of hiring a vehicle.

The DA later published a letter claiming the Toyota Fortuner 4×4 would be better utilised by the Traffic Department ‘which has seen a huge decline in revenue since the inauguration of the new administration’.

However, City Communications Manager Mdu Ncalane dismissed the claims, referring to ‘practical reasons’ for the decision to purchase.

‘The city has not invested in buying a new mayoral fleet vehicle since the local government elections held last year and the city leadership are still chauffeured on a fleet bought in the last term of office.

‘It must be noted that the city recently revealed 14 new vehicles for the traffic section, a new road sweeper, refuse truck and other services vehicles to drive service delivery to the 34 wards.

‘The city therefore dispels the misleading notion that traffic department is in need of such working tools and the city is in financial crisis, as mentioned in the statement,’ said Ncalane.

ALSO READ: City of uMhlathuze exco extracts

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