Sanco wants returning FTLM municipal manager fired
Makgata has been on suspension since November 2024.
The South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) in Tubatse has called on the Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality’s (FTLM) council to terminate the contract of the municipal manager, MJ Makgata.
More than 70 members clad in ANC regalia marched to the municipality last Thursday, calling for Makgata to be dismissed.
Makgata, who had been placed on precautionary suspension by the FTLM council in November following allegations of misconduct, returned to work on February 10 after an interim order was granted by the Burgersfort Regional Court on February 6.
In the interim order, the court gave the FTLM and other respondents cited in the application until June 13 to show why it should not be made final.
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The order prohibits the municipality, municipal council, mayor and speaker from interfering with the municipal manager’s work and/or preventing him from performing his duties, and the speaker or any purported official or councillor are further interdicted from convening and chairing any council meeting that is not in compliance with the municipal council rules and orders.
“As Sanco leadership, we want to issue an instruction to the council that they must terminate Makgata’s contract with immediate effect,” said the organisation’s Prince Maluleka during the march.
Sanco cited that Makgata’s interim order will negatively affect service delivery.
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One of the opposition parties in the FTLM, the Bolsheviks Party of South Africa (BPSA), said it is disappointed with the recent court ruling, because it had hoped Makgata’s suspension would signal a series of many other steps that would have finally restored order in the municipality.
The BPSA’s secretary, Seun Mogotji, said the disciplinary inquiry was the right platform for Makgata to explain himself and clear his name, instead of resorting to approaching the courts.
This publication forwarded media enquiries to the FTLM. The municipality’s communications team declined to comment, indicating the matter was sub judice.
