EKURHULENI City Manager, Khaya Ngema, yesterday resigned amidst uncertainty about the future of Ekurhuleni Metro’s governance.

However, Ekurhuleni spokesperson, Themba Gadebe, denies the sudden move had anything to with the possible change in government, and instead cited reasons as being purely “professional interests”.

Ngema, who has served the metro since 2009, announced his resignation on Wednesday afternoon.

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His last day will be on August 31 as he is “currently assisting the city during this transition period”. He will therefore still chair the first council meeting next week Tuesday as planned.

The inaugural council meeting was originally meant to take place on Friday morning, but was moved to next week where the ANC will announce whether or not they will form a coalition with smaller parties in the metro in order to have a stronger majority hold.

After serving a full-term (2011-2016) and an additional two years, Ngema is set to pursue other professional interests.

“The City Manager felt it was time to move on after spending seven years in a robust environment of municipal governance. During this period, he led a team entrusted to turn around and stabilise the municipality,” Ekurhuleni’s head of communications and brand management, Rego Mavimbela, said.

Ngema’s resignation comes after the DA and IRASA were for a long time advocating for his departure from the city manager’s seat. The DA accused Ngema of, among other things, irregular expenditure of public money and his alleged illegal employment.

“The City of Ekurhuleni would like to express sincere gratitude to Ngema’s dedicated service to the City and its people and wishes him well in his future endeavours,” Gadebe said in a statement.

Ngema will be remembered for his leadership that saw, among other things, Ekurhuleni turning its tide on wasteful expenditure since 2011.