HIGHVELD – The Govan Mbeki Municipality’s council will decide on the fate of Mr Felani Mndebele, municipal manager (MM) on Wednesday, 2 September.
This came after they wrote a letter to Mr Mndebele to state reasons why he should not be suspended.
Claims surfaced that Ms Thandi Ngxonono, executive mayor, and her allies are using Mr Mndebele’s failure to submit the annual financial statement (AFS) to the National Treasury and the Auditor General as the core reason to get rid of him.
Mr Nhlakanipho Zuma, speaker, said the council wrote a letter to Mr Mndebele after it received allegations of non-performance directed against Mr Mndebele.
“In the letter, Ms Ngxonono expressed her dissatisfaction about the performance of Mr Mndebele and brought some allegations that need to be investigated.
“We then wrote to Mr Mndebele asking him to forward reasons why he should not be suspended, pending the investigation.
“We investigated the matter and then followed procedures.”
Mr Mndebele confirmed that he received the letter and that he has responded.
“For now I can only confirm that.
“This is not an easy thing and I will wait for the council resolution.”
Mr Zuma confirmed that the council will meet on Wednesday and that the matter will be discussed.
In the recent council meeting, Ms Ngxonono strongly condemned the non-submission of the AFS and instructed Mr Mndebele to deal with this, once and for all.
Ridge Times contacted Mr Benzi Soko, municipal spokesman, regarding the matter, but he did not respond.
The DA said in the mayor’s time as the political leader of the council, Ms Ngxononono managed to get the municipality one of the highest debt scores in the country towards service providers such as Eskom, under the top 10 municipalities for fruitless and wasteful and irregular expenditure in the country, continuous deficits in the budget and the worst audit outcomes that GMM has ever received.
Ms Ciska Jordaan, DA caucus leader, said the community is in dire straits because of neglect to deliver services and a lack of political will to do something about the finances of the municipality.
“This blame shifting towards the MM reminds one undesirably of incidents of fraud and maladministration two years ago which had resulted in the former executive mayor and municipal manager being removed from their positions in 2018.
“This is political interference at the highest level. The DA is not fooled by Ms Ngxonono’s attempt to divert attention from her own failures as the political head of this municipality.
“The DA therefore had made a proposal that an investigation be launched into the political interference of the executive mayor and her mayoral committee into the finances of the municipality.
“Unfortunately, this proposal was outvoted by the majority ANC.
“We will continue to fight against and exposing wrongdoing in the Govan Mbeki Municipality and ensure that Ms Ngxonono and her ANC cronies are held accountable.”
She said the DA has given a statement to the police in an effort to open a criminal case against Ms Ngxonono for contravention of numerous acts guiding local government and the gross infringement of the rights of residents of Bethal, eMzinoni and eMbalenhle, who have been left in the dark because of the municipality.
The Economic Freedom Fighters is not in support of the suspension of Mr Mndebele.
They believe that Ms Ngxonono and the mayoral committee are trying to get rid of him because he is not dancing to their tune.
Mr Thabiso Mofokeng, said: “They are frustrating the MM and should have given him support.
“This nothing but political interference by the ANC. They are saying nothing about the Chief Financial Officer, why?
“In actual fact it is Ms Ngxonono who should go.”
