Dismissed corruption-accused CFO of vital South African city vows to return to office

Mercy Phetla, the City of Matlosana’s former Chief Financial Officer (CFO), has issued a defiant statement describing her dismissal as a “political execution”, after the High Court in Mahikeng blocked her reinstatement.

In a ruling handed down on Tuesday, 10 February 2026, Judge Peterson granted an urgent interdict suspending the council resolution that had reinstated her.

The order explicitly declares that Phetla “is not entitled to report for duty or to perform any functions as Chief Financial Officer” pending a final review of the council’s decision.

The ruling serves as a judicial check on a time of governance in the North West municipality, where a coalition of political parties attempted to override a disciplinary inquiry that found Phetla guilty of serious fraud and corruption.

Coinciding with the court battle, Phetla issued a press statement on Tuesday claiming she is the victim of a “coordinated campaign” to remove her for “obstructing corrupt networks.”

“This is not a search for justice; it is a desperate attempt by those whose ‘dealings’ I have disturbed to remove me from the CFO’s office,” Phetla stated.

Her defence relies heavily on procedural arguments.

Her legal team asserts that the Municipal Manager and Mayor acted beyond their powers by instituting disciplinary action without a specific council resolution, which she argues is required by municipal regulations.

She further characterised the legal disciplinary inquiry as a “kangaroo court” and claimed that a previous forensic investigation by MKIVA Accountants and Auditors had cleared her of financial misconduct – something insiders have denied.

Phetla intends to challenge the legality of the disciplinary process through higher courts, including the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Phetla is actively seeking intervention from national and provincial government bodies to override the decision.

The ‘damning’ disciplinary findings

Phetla’s claims of victimisation stand in sharp contrast to the specific findings of the disciplinary inquiry chaired by Advocate S. Sethene, which led to her dismissal on 23 January 2026.

The inquiry found Phetla guilty on all five charges, rejecting the defence that her actions were administrative errors.

Instead, the report described them as “calculated acts designed to defraud the municipality”.

The charges detail a pattern of financial misconduct centred on the “Variegated scandal,” which included:

• Ghost deliveries: Phetla was found to have authorised a payment of R2.9 million to Variegated (Pty) Ltd in January 2024 for electrical materials that were never delivered.
• Gratification: The inquiry upheld the charge that Phetla irregularly accepted a luxury vehicle—a VW Amarok worth R1.4 million—from GMHM Construction and Projects, a service provider doing business with the municipality.
• The bail connection: Perhaps the most damaging evidence noted in the report was the revelation that Phetla’s R35,000 bail money, following her arrest by the Hawks, was paid by the son of a director at GMHM Construction—the same company alleged to have gifted her the vehicle.

In 2025, the Hawks and NPA secured a preservation order to seize luxury vehicles, including a Maserati and Mercedes-Benz, linked to a R6 million “ghost tender” scandal involving Variegated (Pty) Ltd.

The presiding officer concluded that Phetla was “unrepentant” and warned that she “cannot be left anywhere near the municipality’s purse”.

She denied all wrongdoing.

A council divided

Despite these findings, a council meeting on 4 February 2026 saw a coalition comprising factions of the ANC, the EFF, the Patriotic Alliance (PA), and the ACDP vote 34 to 25 to reinstate her.

The resolution instructed the administration to withdraw her termination letter, a move the Democratic Alliance (DA) condemned as unlawful interference.

The DA argued that the council has no jurisdiction to act as an appeal body for senior manager disciplinary processes. This view appears to have been vindicated by the High Court’s interim order.

An application to block Phetla’s return was brought by the civic organisation Nova Matlosana in Action NPC.

The court has reserved the issue of costs for the second part of the application (Part B), which will deal with the final validity of the council’s reinstatement resolution.

In an interview with the SABC, ANC North West Provincial Chairperson Nono Maloyi said that “there’s quite an unfortunate situation in some of our municipalities where administrators… involve themselves in wrongdoing.”

“When they are found, they then get these politicians who happen to be councillors to agree with them or condone their wrongdoing.”

“Anybody who has decided to do things which is illegal, anyone conflicted with the law, he must excuse us in order for us to focus on what people of this province have elected us to do,” the leader said.

At national level, CoGTA Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa has also intervened, calling an emergency meeting with North West provincial leadership to discuss a mitigation plan.

In a letter dated 6 February 2026, Hlabisa invited Premier Lazarus Mokgosi, MEC for Cooperative Governance Oageng Molapisi, and Provincial Treasury MEC Kenetswe Mosenogi to an urgent meeting scheduled for Sunday, 8 February 2026.

Hlabisa said the urgency was prompted by a September 2025 joint oversight visit by Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on CoGTA, SCOPA, the Standing Committee on the Auditor-General, and the North West Provincial Legislature.

The oversight bodies raised concerns that Matlosana had regressed from an unqualified to a qualified audit opinion for the 2023/24 and 2024/25 financial years.

This is while unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure increased, and spending on the Municipal Infrastructure Grant remained poor.

“The leadership of Matlosana LM committed to improve performance. Regrettably… service delivery in the City of Matlosana has subsequently deteriorated,” Hlabisa wrote.