Govan Mbeki municipal council reinstated Ms Lizzy Shabalala as the acting municipal manager on Tuesday, June 29, after Mr Michele Melato’s three-month acting position has lapsed and he had to return to the Gert Sibande District Municipality.
This was decided during a virtual extraordinary council meeting.
Ms Shabalala, director for community service, was the first to be appointed as acting municipal manager after Mr Felani Mndebele was placed on precautionary suspension by the council last September.
Mr Melato was later appointed as acting municipal manager for Govan Mbeki Municipality to replace Ms Shabalala during a special virtual council meeting held on Thursday, March 11.
Opposition parties are against the decision to reinstate Ms Shabalala and to send Mr Melato packing.
They blame the ANC councillors for using their majority in the council to fight their political battles.
“We want our municipal manager, Mr Felani Mndebele, to come back to his position because there’s nothing tangible against him, ” said Mr Thabiso Mfokeng, EFF councillor.
“The mayor, his mayoral committee and ANC councillors are afraid that if Mr Mndebele comes back, he will expose their corruption,” he said.
The leadership of SAPROMO is disappointed with the decision to give the executive mayor, Mr Nhlakanipho Zuma, the power to negotiate with Mr Mndebele.
“We believe that it is like giving him a blank check.
“We argued the relevancy of the municipal manager’s item that served on our council meeting because it was not supposed to be entertained in the first place,” said Mr Sibusiso Hlolweni, SAPROMO-councillor.
The ANC never sought council approval before taking the matter to court and only when they realised that they were losing their appeal cases against the municipal manager, did they begin to involve us to continue fighting their political battles.
“We don’t support the decision. The municipality lost more than R3-million in litigations against the municipal manager,” said Mr Hlolweni.
The DA also voted against the buying out of the municipal manager’s contract during the virtual sitting, citing that the matter was supposed to be dealt with at the disciplinary hearing.
“The executive mayor decided to appeal the court ruling without a council resolution and he lost the case. The problem is that we are now paying the municipal manager to sit at home and do nothing while we are also paying for someone to act in his place,” said Mr James Masango, DA councillor.
“We also want to know the legal costs incurred in this case, including that of the municipal manager. We can’t go and negotiate with our municipal manager because he was not found guilty – either by the court or disciplinary hearing, he must come back and do his job because we want consistency,” said Mr James Masango DA councillor.
Ms Aranda Nel -Buitendag of the Freedom Front Plus, said Ms Lizzy Shabalala, did a good job during her first time as acting municipal manager after Mr Mndebele was suspended, but the municipality is holding the community hostage to pay for the infightings of the ANC.
“The mayor and the speaker are failing to follow council procedures and that is why we are in this mess.
“They are involved in factional battles that do assist the municipality,” said Ms Nel-Buitendag.
“With Ms Shabalala again appointed to act as the municipal manager, someone will act in her position and our municipal manager is sitting at home getting paid for nothing because of ANC-councillors.
“Now they want to buy his contract out. We don’t support that, we want him back to work.
“The community is paying for ANC infightings for positions, ”said Ms Nel-Buitendag.
Suspended municipal manager, Mr Mndebele, told Ridge Times that he was not aware of the council decision to settle his contract with the municipality, and his lawyers also did not communicate anything to him, but he will wait for the municipality to come forward and present the council decision.
The office of the executive did not respond at times of going to press.
