The Ratlou Local Municipality in the North West province has defended the purchase of 22 laptops for senior officials at a staggering cost of R730,000.
One of the laptops purchased for the municipal manager, a MacBook Pro 14inch with 500 gigabytes of storage, cost the municipality R77,800.
IOL did a search online and found that the same laptop is sold for around R35,000 at the iStore in South Africa, with other shops offering it in the same price range.
Other laptops acquired by the North West municipality include HP Elite Book laptops with touch screen which cost the taxpayer R39,471.
In an interview with broadcaster Newzroom Afrika, municipal manager Lloyd Leoko said these are essential tools for the municipality to effectively render services.
“Let me confirm that there is nothing wrong about that. You have touched on the issue of service delivery, and for us to render services to our people, we must have tools of the trade that will enable us to render our services to those communities,” Leoko told the news channel.
“Yes indeed, the municipality purchased 22 laptops for its accounting officer, newly-appointed senior managers and some staff members who were in need of such tools of trade. The money that has been spent there is R730,000.
Leoko added that the laptops needed to be of certain specifications in order to accurately execute service delivery in the municipality.
“We understand that our responsibilities within the institution are not the same. There are those responsibilities that require certain specifications of laptops so that they can be executed smoothly. For example, remember, on a daily basis we are working on our server and there are different modules within that server for one to access those modules,” he said.
“He or she will be in need of certain specifications of laptop, in particular, maybe the accounting officer as well the chief finance officer.”
Residents in the municipality are battling with service delivery challenges including lack of water supply to the houses.
IOL