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Moutse people are still without water but Municipality can ply with money;

Within the ambit of any kind of Municipality it has to embark on a certain amount of marketing and in this regard has to on occasion call on certain organisations that supply it with corporate gifts to advance its image and that could be used in Municipal events and functions to market the Council.

With this kind of process, there is obviously nothing wrong, as in any kind of business marketing is essential in raising brand awareness and making people aware of the kind of service that the business would and or could provide.

The services that any Municipality provides is very much common knowledge and one need to wonder if marketing gifts and or corporate paraphernalia is in any way necessary taken that the Council, in its financial affairs is actually struggling to make ends meet, and lacks on various fronts in its service delivery, without even having a sufficient and effective debtors control system operational to ensure that it is being paid for the services that it provides.

Of recent the Elias Motsoaledi Local Council, embarked on a marketing campaign for an apparent Environmental Day program and accordingly awarded a contract to a supplier to provide it with printed paraphernalia including squeeze bottles, string backs, rulers and lanyards, all branded with Council Logo, but then looking more closely at the relevant company and its invoice that it provided for the work it is noticed that it records its registration number with the Company and Intellectual Property Limited as 011165/07. This raises serious concern as the company invoice fails to indicate in any way as to whether or not it is indeed a Company, Private Company, Co-operative or Close Corporation. The 07 in its registration number indicates that it in all likelihood is a company but it lacks the year or registration of the business entity, and or its legal standing.

On closer scrutiny of the invoice the relevant charges for “logo material” in the 4 different classes amount to R 85.00 (Squeeze bottles - 250) R 350.00 (String Bags – 250) R 30.00 (Rulers – 250) and R 45.00 (Lanyards – 250) which in total amounts to R 127 500 excluding VAT and inclusive to VAT R 143 301.00.

Taken the relevant charges that were levied in respect of the items one need to stand amazed at the fact that these more than exorbitant prices could have been charged and paid for by Council, to a Company that does not comply with the CIPL registration.

If as an example a ruler and then its estimation are very conservatory estimated amounts to R 7.50 the printing of the logo on the ruler alone amounts to R 22.50 and as is commonly known in the printing industry, the more you print of an item the cheaper it becomes. All of the other item being subject to the same kind of argument.

It is therefore yet once again more that evident that the supplier acted as broker and financially itself and or someone in Council receiving quid pro quo or douceur yet once again. 
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