To reinstate the former municipal manager or not?
That was the question that occupied an entire day last week.
The Govan Mbeki Municipality’s council was stuck for the whole day on one motion on Thursday, January 27.
The motion submitted by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) demanded the reinstatement of the dismissed municipal manager, Felani Mndebele.
All political parties supported the motion except councillors of the ANC who were trying by all means for the motion not to succeed.
A heated debate erupted after the speaker, Fikile Magagamela, introduced the motion and the mayor, Nhlakanipho Zuma, rejected it.
The DA, EFF, FF plus, ATM, ARP and IFP together formed a majority against the ANC and wanted the motion to stand.
These political parties argued that if they do not re-instate Mndebele as the municipal manager, the council is in contempt of a court order.
They want to correct the wrong that has happened in the past.
They also claimed that they rejected the “unlawful act of ANC councillors” when the issue with Mndebele had begun, but the ANC used its majority rule in the council chamber at that time to outvote, overpower and bulldoze smaller parties.
“The previous council administration took many decisions on the matter, all processes were concluded and Mndebele’s contract was terminated by the council.
“He ceased to be an employee of the municipality and for him to be re-instated, we must be served with a court order,” said Mayor Zuma.
“Mndebele has approached the CCMA. Should he come out from the CCMA with a judgement that says he must be re-instated, he will be reinstated.
“Should the CCMA judgement say he should not be re-instated but be paid, then we must abide by that judgement and if the judgement says the council was right, then that means we were right,” Zuma said.
“We must not impede law processes by which we are supposed to abide. I request that council be patient and allow that process to conclude,” he said.
Thabiso Mofokeng, EFF councillor, accused the mayor of speaking rubbish and the ANC of previously flouting council standing orders using their majority votes.
He said now that the ANC is “in the minority”, they are pretending to respect the law.
“When you decided to appeal the municipal manager’s high court case, we told you that the council was going to lose, but you used your majority to proceeded, and you lost.
“I advised you, mayor, but my advice fell on deaf ears.
“We remember when you, mayor, came to a council meeting at Lillian Ngoyi Centre and instructed us to take a resolution to contest or appeal the high court decision to reinstate the municipal manager.
“You came to us, knowing very well that you have already appealed the decision and only wanted us to approve what you had already done.
“Now, those days are gone,” Mofokeng said.
“It is time we correct the wrongs that happened 10 years ago (AZIKHALE). Don’t tell us about laws that you had failed to follow in the past years,” concluded Mofokeng.
The ANC didn’t want to vote on the motion, which placed pressure on the speaker who was not feeling well.
The speaker left the council chamber twice.
Her first exit was after the motion was presented and debated.
She chose Jabu Zwane to stand in for her, but he was rejected by those political parties in favour of the motion.
The speaker was then forced to return.
After lunch, the speaker said she was ill and couldn’t handle it anymore.
She again put Zwane in her seat and left the council meeting, but he was again kicked out of the chair when the acting municipal manager read the processes to be followed when the speaker is unavailable for the council meeting.
Council nominated two candidates to be voted acting speaker for that particular council meeting.
They were Zwane (ANC) who received 24 votes and Wilson Chauke (EFF) who secured 35 votes to become the speaker of the day.
After the lengthy debate on this one item yielded no progress, the meeting was adjourned until further notice.
The particular item remains because the council has yet to decide on Mndebele’s reinstatement.
