Letter: Errors in reporting

Mr Sikhumbuzo Hlongwane (Executive Director: EDP) and Mr Siyabonga Khanyile (Executive Director: Community Safety) write: The article published by your journalist (Erica Abrahams) titled, “Where is the MM?” published on your newspaper in the week ending 30th of November 2018, leaves a lot to be desired.

It contains a lot of errors, which as managers that report to the Municipal Manager felt that they need to corrected before they become the gospel truth.  The article’s opening lines about the sick leave of the Municipal Manager is insensitive, inconsiderate, inhumane and unethical.

The Municipal Manager is not a robot but he is a human being like all of us. He gets sick and hospitalised like all of us.  There is no law that people who earns in certain brackets cannot get sick or take a sick leave. It is in considerate to expect that the Municipal Manager shall not get sick.

The faceless concerned employees or councillors from KwaDukuza, who have raised concerns have been unfair to themselves and the public. The Municipal Manager sick leave has been recorded in all Council, Management Committee (MANCO) and Council meetings as standard practice and accepted by all these structures. Nobody have raised any concerns or objections.

It is disingenuous for your faceless sources to say that they are not aware that the Municipal Manager is not at work. It is also very unfair that the same sources expect the Mayor who is the immediate supervisor of the Municipal Manager to disclose confidential medical records to them or public.

The fact is that the Municipal Manager has produced a medical note like any South African who is employed to exercise his right of being on a sick leave in line with his employment contract and Basic Conditions of Employment Act.

The use of the Municipal Manager health situation to advance a narrow and self-serving narrative by your sources need to be further examined in the correct context. This article has left a bad taste in most people within KwaDukuza Municipality and general public.

It shall be noted that the Municipal Manager of KwaDukuza, was appointed from the 1st of February 2012, for a five-year period, not in 2014 as per your article. He performed exceptionally well during the same period, which made all Councillors across all political parties represented in KwaDukuza Council to further re-appoint him for a further five years. During the same period, he has been sick like everybody but the municipality has never collapsed nor has he lost control of the municipality. In fact, KwaDukuza Municipality has continued to outshine and deliver services over the years including attracting investments to this area.

It shall be noted, that in terms of the legislation the Municipal Manager has managers who are appointed by Council and who reports direct to him. In the case of KwaDukuza Municipality are called Executive Directors.  These directors in terms of the Municipal Finance Management Act, have a fiduciary responsibility equivalent to those of the Accounting Officer. They are accountable to Council via the Municipal Manager.  These Executive Directors are responsible for the operations of their business units and also complement each other through collective management approach. Therefore, any success and failure of the Municipality cannot be attributed to a single person but it could be attributed to over 900 employees employed by Council to execute the plans and decisions of Council.

Your article further cast aspersions to the Senior Management of KwaDukuza and its Council, about the lack of control and of the senior managers not following the book when they are handling affairs of Council. The article further cast aspersions that there are fraudulent activities that are taking place in the absence of the Municipal Manager. The level of investigative journalism and information provided to public is misleading, incorrect and embarrassing to the profession of journalism.

It is claimed that the contracts of renewing or advertising grass cutting and cleaning has missed the deadline. This is incorrect! The Grass Cutting Contracts were competitively advertised during 2015/2016 financial year and awarded in the same year.

PLEASE NOTE GRASS CUTTING TENDER WAS AWARDED FOR TWO YEARS WITH OPTION TO EXTEND FOR FURTHER ONE, IN THIS CONTEXT ITEM IS BEFORE COUNCIL TO EXCERSISE THAT OPTION OF EXTENDING FOR ONE AS PER THE CONDITIONS OF CONTRCT ENTERED INTO WITH THE GRASS CUTTING SERVICE PROVIDERS.

 It is very incorrect that contracts are renewed later and this is against the law. Any late renewal will make that contract irregular. All contracts that are either renewed or extended are done within the ambits of the law. Any suggestion that this is done when the time is out might mean that Council is being misled by Executive Directors. Council is a competent body to grant extension and they have done within time. In all Audit General Outcomes for last five years, there has been no finding of the municipality extending or renewing the contract when its time has lapsed.  It very disturbing that your headlines have not provided facts on any number of allegations published from your ‘reliable’ sources.

As the Executive Directors, we have noted inaccurate and selective reporting by North Coast Courier on the affairs of Council and in certain instances the names of Executive Directors will be quoted without their consent or given them a chance to clarify issues. We have noted that in the last three months there has been a rise in the attack of the municipality and also focusing on the negative stories. We have noted that Courier used the incident of 2016 as a write up of this year Blythedale Beach Festival.

It is very interesting that the positive feedback received in 2017 from the Blythedale Ratepayers Association which was published by the same newspaper was ignored in order for this newspaper to push their negative narrative about KwaDukuza Municipality. SANRAL article also is one example which this newspaper published the inaccurate article which was corrected by our SANRAL Colleague. The Editor shall consider some consequential management against the author of such inaccurate reports as it compromises the integrity of the newspaper.  As the Executive Directors, we are willing to offer in-depth knowledge about our work, laws and operations of our business units. This in the long-run will add value to your reporting and community empowerment.

Lastly, we have noted that North Coast Courier does not attend either Council meetings which are open to the public in order to get first-hand information but they rely on the version of few Councillors from KwaDukuza who failed to advance their positions during council matters. We have further noted that positive news about KwaDukuza Municipality does not get any coverage or even a headline in this newspaper. The Municipality hosted a successful business week, last week with the Minister of Trade and Industry visiting the area on Monday, the 26th of November 2018. There was no coverage.

This was a worthwhile story for the area as the Minister engaged local businesses during this meeting. The Municipality has been received local and international awards on climate change. Few weeks ago, SALGA KZN awarded three award to KwaDukuza Municipality the story was published in all local newspaper besides Courier.

North Coast Courier is failing KwaDukuza community by failing to give a balance stories and also focusing on the negative issues raised by one grouping within council. The manner that Courier staff and editorial continues to behave has made the North Coast Courier a mouthpiece of a certain grouping of the community and the paper is failing on its obligations to be fair, balance and objective on its reporting.

As the Executive Directors of KwaDukuza Municipality, we are pleased to indicates that the municipality is not collapsing and we do have confidence in our Municipal Manager. By the way, the Municipal Manager is back at work and we are looking forward to Auditor General improved report for 2017/2018 financial year. This will be an indicative that the Municipal Manager have not lost any control of the municipality. We further hope that your sources will use proper internal channels to raise their concerns about Executive Directors or Municipal Manager, and we are ready to account, as we do on monthly basis.

The Editor replies:

That’s a spirited defence of your employer, but you are misinformed and your criticism of the Courier is being economical with the truth.

Most employment contracts limit sick leave to two weeks and the MM has had far more than that.

We asked your communications office how many days he had taken. The reply was that we should mind our own business and the only way we could get the information would be via the Promotion of Access to Information Act.

We did not enquire about his medical condition

On the issues you have raised: Our reporter has attended not all, but most council meetings this year. The Blythedale New Year party story (Planning ahead for contentious beach festival, November 15) quotes the ratepayers association’s satisfaction with the last party. The climate change story was published (City leaders pledge to cut greenhouse gas, Page 13, November 23).

Ask your communications office why we were not told about the visit of the trade minister.

You are wrong about the grass cutting and legal services contracts. One is four months past renewal and are only coming to council this week.

The printing contract was fraudulent (the high court said so, not us) even if the municipality chooses to sweep it under the carpet.

Sanral disagreed with us about the Tiffany’s traffic lights and the N2 non-repairs, but that’s a matter of opinion. We have been lied to by all parties in those matters for years.

No manager has been quoted without their knowledge or consent. We are delighted to hear that you are willing to share material to us. Perhaps you are not aware that we have long been forbidden by your communications office from contacting staff for information.

Nor are we provided with council agendas or informed timeously of council meetings, despite many, many requests.If you really believe our reporting is not fair and balanced, feel free to report us to the Press Council. But we are not here to sing your praises unconditionally, especially when information is withheld deliberately.

Accountability is a key component of good governance and transparency is vital to achieve this. We are guided at all times by the public interest.

To quote the Press Code: “The media exist to serve society. Their freedom provides for independent scrutiny of the forces that shape society, and is essential to realising the promise of democracy. It enables citizens to make informed judgments on the issues of the day, a role whose centrality is recognised in the South African Constitution.”

An edited version of this letter was published in the North Coast Courier newspaper.