The long-winded Biyela-matter came to an abrupt halt when the Endumeni Council surprised everyone by resolving to bring back the municipal manager, who three years ago, was suspended on full pay.
The previous Council suspended TP Biyela in 2013 and the case has been in and out court ever since without reaching finality.
The Council – supported by the co-governance coalition of the IFP, DA and EFF – resolved to bring him back in a ‘bid to cut down on fruitless and wasteful expenditure, which was the hallmark of the previous ANC-led Council’.
The six ANC Councillors, who have said they ‘would make sure that the Endumeni Council is not functioning until COGTA intervenes.’ did not support the decision.
Asked if Mr Biyela will now bring legal charges against the municipality following the expensive court battle, Mayor Richard Mbatha told the Courier that on Friday Mr Biyela had signed an indemnity which would prevent him from doing so.
“He is here to work and will do so accordingly.
“After all, he was the municipal manager appointed by the ANC. Since his suspension, Endumeni has suffered from a succession of COGTA deployed acting municipal managers who have been from out of town and never achieved anything.
“They put our municipality in a state of dispute while we had to pay them and the suspended Mr Biyela.
“Plus we have to pay the actors’ travelling, accommodation and other expenses which ran into hundreds of thousands of Rands over the past three years.

“His contract ends in September 2017 and his case would most probably drag on for much longer.
“It is ludicrous that the previous ANC-led council would rather have had him kept on suspension with full pay while we paid another acting manager a full salary. We are here to make decisions in the best interests of the community, not to further personal agendas against certain individuals.
“As the Co-Governance (Council), we will not prejudice the ratepayers by turning Endumeni into a circus like the previous council did.
“The ratepayers cannot afford to pay two municipal managers, that is what it boils down to.
“That is why the rates increases for the last five years have been so high.
“This was to fund the ANC-run Council’s hidden agendas where we had actors upon actors in senior positions.
“The ANC should understand that this is not Hollywood, we are tasked to run this institution properly, and that is what the Co-Governance intends to do.” Mayor Mbatha said when the IFP-led Council took over, they immediately made a decision to appoint Desi Padayachee as acting municipal manager – a local person who holds a LLB (Law) degree whom they did not have to pay accommodation and travelling costs.
“Service delivery is paramount not hidden agendas”
“Mr Padayachee received an 8% acting allowance for carrying out the duties of municipal manager and corporate services manager which was a great saving for us.
“Mr Padayachee has proven to be more than competent as the acting municipal manager and has made major progress in terms of service delivery during the period that he was there.
“Obviously, he would not be favoured by the ANC component due to his ‘no nonsense’ approach and his eradication of any potential corruption that may have been on the cards. But as usual, the ANC would not support such a sound decision and colluded with their MEC and made court application after court application in order to find a way to attack the Council and oust Mr Padyachee.
“This was a political manoeuvre which is the same modus operandi that was used by the MEC to disband the Nquthu Municipality, just because the numbers at that Council did not favour the ANC.

“We stand by our decision to appoint Mr Padayachee as the acting municipal manager, as a sound financial and legal decision, especially in consideration of the fact that he outperformed all other MMs that were previously deployed by COGTA including the Section 56 managers that acted before.

Read more on the Biyela saga:

It wasn’t me … Biyela rejects interdict, property claims

Council resolves to bring back Biyela
“His competency can be put to the test in any arena and we are confident that he will excel against the best that COGTA has to offer, in fact, we will welcome that challenge should the MEC accept.
The MEC will do all she can to put the municipality under administration so the ANC can again pull the strings to the detriment of ratepayers.
“As the Co-Governance, we are a very balanced Council who have decided from the onset that we would not replicate the atrocities at Endumeni which were committed by the ANC. Service delivery is paramount for the Co-Governance and all decision shall be made with that in mind.
“We will not be phased by the ANC component who are intent on draining the public purse in pursuit of their own agendas and pleasures.”