Tshwane administrators will no longer appoint a new city manager

Following the DA’s court interdict to the appointment of a new city manager, Nawa said the administrators decided to halt the process until legal contestation into the administration of Tshwane was finalised.

“Going into a legal battle with the DA will take a lot of money from the metro and already the metro has limited resources,” he said.

“We took this decision to channel the money that would otherwise be used in the legal dispute into service delivery. We are administrators and not a political party, our responsibility is to ensure service delivery reaches the residents.”

Initially, when the court interdict was launched, Nawa was adamant that the appointment would proceed despite the appeal.

“The appointment of the city manager was one of the duties we had to fulfill to ensure solid administrative leadership in the metro and the law allows us to do this. But because of revenue to be affected by this due to legal dispute, we decided to halt the process.”

In a letter from the administrator’s lawyers to the DA, it said the appointment would be halted, pending the Constitutional Court appeal in the dissolution expected to start in September.

The letter reads:

“Our client has instructed us to inform you it will not appoint a City manager until the Constitutional Court has determined the validity of the dissolution of the City council.”

The reasons for its decision are the following:

It has been advised that its plan to appoint a City manager at the beginning of August 2020 on a fixed-term contract terminable on three months’ notice is allowed in law and would be practical in the circumstances.

– Litigation over that question would be imprudent in the current crisis. The resources of the City are limited and diminishing. The Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in the biggest contraction of our economy since the Great Depression. The pandemic has placed unprecedented demands on our diminishing resources to deliver services where there is an urgent need for service delivery in the areas of health and to the poor and vulnerable.

– Consequently, it is not in the interest of the City or its residents to litigate over the appointment, until the Constitutional Court has determined the validity of the dissolution. The backtracking comes after the DA approached the North Gauteng High Court to interdict an attempt to appoint a city manager last month.

Tshwane DA mayoral candidate Randall Williams said the party welcomed this move by the administrators.

“The DA will not allow unelected and unlawfully imposed ANC administrators the chance to sabotage the running of the city any further than they have already done.”

Further to this, as the unlawfully imposed ANC administrators have significantly exceeded the 90 days allowed to them in office by the court ruling, any decisions that they are making now are deeply questionable, and their continued presence in the Tshwane metro is unconstitutional.

“Meanwhile, acting city manager Mmaseabata Mutlaneng taking over Mavela Dlamini who resigned earlier this month, would continue fulfilling the duties until the legal woes were settled.”