Acting Municipal Manager hands in his resignation

Vish Govender said he is awaiting a meeting of council or the troika to accept his resignation as acting municipal manager.

November 30, 2021

Newcastle Advertiser 1 minute read

Acting Municipal Manager hands in his resignation — Acting Municipal Manager, Vish Govender inspects a sewage issue in Madadeni earlier this year.

Acting Municipal Manager, Vish Govender, has handed in his resignation.

Govender, who served in the capacity of MM this past year, said he is awaiting a meeting of council or the troika to accept his resignation.

It is effective immediately, he confirmed.

Mlungisi Khumalo, Head of Communications for the Newcastle Municipality, said the following:

“Unfortunately, I can’t confirm this claim. However the municipality is not in a position to discuss employee and employer related issues with the media.”

He referred further questions to Govender to ‘respond in his own discretion for the rest of the questions’.

During Govender’s term as acting city manager, he focused on service delivery to the community.

From sewage and infrastructure issues, and even illegal dumping, Govender prioritised mobilising municipal teams with haste.

“During my term I put very strict consequence management in place. Staff whom came in late, slept on duty or were found guilty of misconduct were taken to task. This was a high priority for me,” he said.

Some of the other burning issues tackled during his term included the following:

Approval of the organogram and the top 10 integrated development plan
A cost containment strategy to reduce wasteful expenditure
The appointment of a debt collector from National Treasury to collect outstanding debt in excess of R1.8-billion