AbaQulusi municipality’s top dog is shown the door

BONGIWE Mnikathi is out.
Not only is she no longer the acting municipal manager, but she will also no longer be the Director of Community Services, as her contract comes to an end this month.
Over the next two weeks, she will hand over her responsibilities as acting municipal manager to AbaQulusi’s Development and Planning director, Dalisu Zulu.

Mr Zulu will take the helm as acting municipal manager of AbaQulusi municipality until the position can be filled.
The vacancy of municipal manager is to be re-advertised following an objection from the MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Nomusa Dube-Ncube, regarding the selection procedure.
It is left to be seen whether Dr Vusimuzi Mthembu will once again apply for this position, which has alluded him twice before.

On both occasions, he had been appointed as municipal manager of AbaQulusi municipality but could not take on the position due to objections lodged by Ms Dube-Ncube.
Chief whip of the IFP, Jerry Sibiya, said that Ms Mnikathi had been acting as municipal manager for 19 consecutive months.

During this period she has remained Director of Community Services (the original portfolio she was hired to fill), and has been acting Director of Corporate Services for more than a year, following the suspension of the Director of Corporate Services, Nana Sibisi.
“It is clear from the performance of the various departments that she (Ms Mnikathi) has had too many things on her plate.

A senior manager is only supposed to act in a position for a maximum of six months, and Salga has advised that allowing one director to continue acting in the position is actually killing the institution.

Council resolved to advertise the vacancies for Municipal Manager, Director of Corporate Services and Director of Community Services, as Ms Mnikathi’s contract comes to an end at the end of February,” explained Cllr Sibiya.

“We are in a dire situation with regards to senior managers, as all of the senior managers’ contracts would have come to an end by May 31, including that of the Chief Financial Officer. We will have to speed up the process of having the right people appointed in these positions in order to see a turnaround in service delivery. We ask the public to be patient with us as we get our house in order.”

At a special council meeting that took place last Thursday, the ANC was very vocal in its disapproval of appointing another senior manager to act in the position of municipal manager.

ANC member, Cllr Lawrence Dube proposed that MEC Ncube-Dube be asked to send an administrator to run the municipality until the MM’s position was filled.
ANC spokesperson, Zakes Dlamini, said Cllr Dube’s insistence on having the council vote on whether it should appoint a senior manager as acting MM or have the MEC send an administrator had nearly led to Cllr Dube being removed from the council chambers by force.
However, council resolved that Mr Zulu will act as municipal manager at another council meeting which took place on Friday.

“We wanted Mnikathi removed all along, but the IFP resisted. Now, we are wondering what their motive is,” said Mr Dlamini.

Mr Zulu was introduced as the new acting municipal manager at a meeting of the Executive Council, which took place on Tuesday.

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