The Executive Mayor of the Mopani District Municipality, Councillor Pule Shayi.
The Mopani District Municipality has appointed a new finance chief to fix its broken accounts and rescue the local government from a massive financial crisis.
On Thursday, 23 July 2026, the Municipal Council voted unanimously during a Special Council Sitting to appoint Mr. Mojela Jimmy as the new Chief Financial Officer. His main job will be to clean up the municipality’s messy books, stop deep-rooted corruption, and get local government operations back on track.
This urgent appointment comes at a desperate time for the municipality. Just weeks ago, National Treasury dropped a financial bomb on Mopani by freezing R300 million of its equitable share allocation. Treasury blocked the money because the municipality failed to follow financial laws and broke strict government spending rules. Without those funds, the district faces severe pressure in paying for essential public services.
Mopani’s political and financial woes are escalating at a tricky time for local government leadership. Executive Mayor Pule Shayi recently scored the position of Deputy Provincial Secretary at the ANC Limpopo 10th Provincial Conference. Because of his new political rank, Shayi is touted to be in line for an appointment as the MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (CoGHSTA) in an imminent provincial cabinet reshuffle. This leaves the municipality facing both financial chaos and an impending change in political control.
The municipality lost its previous Chief Financial Officer, Sibongile Mathebula, in February 2026. Council fired Mathebula after a formal disciplinary hearing found her guilty of serious financial misconduct. That investigation linked her to illegal irregularities surrounding a massive R5.6 million tender.
Mathebula was not the only one forced out. As part of a cleanup plan to satisfy National Treasury, the municipality fired seven senior officials who were linked to financial crime and bad tender management. To show it is serious about fighting corruption, the municipality also set up an independent Financial Misconduct Board and brought in outside private investigators to finish open fraud cases.
Now, all eyes are on Mojela Jimmy to fix a financial system that has completely collapsed. Official records show that Mopani takes an average of 430 days to pay its business suppliers and contractors. Government law states clearly that all municipal bills must be paid within 30 days.
At the same time, the municipality takes an average of 394 days to collect debts owed by residents and businesses. Even worse, officials admit that 95 percent of the money owed to the municipality will never be collected. Over the last year, Mopani ran up a massive deficit of R197.69 million.
The district is also swimming in staggering amounts of illegal spending. Audit reports revealed that Mopani has accumulated R1.35 billion in irregular expenditure. Auditors warned that the real figure is actually much higher because internal tracking systems were broken on purpose to hide illegal supply chain deals.
To make matters worse, Mopani owes massive sums of money to water suppliers. The municipality owes R300 million to Lepelle Northern Water and another R384 million to the Department of Water and Sanitation. Because of these huge unpaid bills, local communities across the district regularly suffer severe water shortages.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Mopani has welcomed the appointment after 18 months of unstable acting leadership, but warned that Jimmy has an uphill battle ahead. DA Councillor Rodney Tito Mavundza outlined five critical priorities for the new CFO: boosting poor debt collection, fixing broken financial reporting, fixing the municipality’s unfunded budget, spending all conditional grants on service delivery, and stopping wasteful and irregular spending. Mavundza stressed that the DA will keep a close eye on Jimmy’s performance to ensure the people of Mopani get the transparent, accountable leadership they deserve.
The Municipal Finance Management Act forces the new CFO to follow strict legal duties. Under Section 65 of the law, Jimmy must completely rebuild how the municipality handles its cash so it can pay suppliers on time. Under Sections 122 and 125, he must set up daily tracking tools so that every cent spent on government tenders is accurately reported.
Jimmy must also redirect money toward maintaining broken roads, pipes, and buildings. Mopani currently spends a tiny 1.2 percent of its budget on repairs, which is far below the 8 percent minimum level required by National Treasury.
Executive Mayor Pule Shayi welcomed the new appointment during the council meeting, calling it an important step toward building a capable local government.
“We congratulate Mr. Mojela Jimmy on his appointment and wish him success as he assumes this important responsibility,” Mayor Shayi said. “We are confident that his leadership and expertise will contribute towards strengthening the municipality’s financial sustainability, improving governance, and supporting our collective commitment to delivering quality services to our communities.”
The Council added that it hopes Jimmy will restore public trust, bring back strict accountability, and rebuild working relationships with national government leaders.
The appointment of the new CFO is the central piece of a rescue plan submitted to National Treasury. Local leaders hope that by hiring a qualified, permanent CFO and punishing corrupt staff, Treasury will unfreeze the R300 million grant and save Mopani from total financial ruin.