Municipality in Secunda appoints new Municipal Manager

Political parties have different views on the newly appointed municipal manager for Govan Mbeki Municipality, Ndaba Maseko.

He was endorsed at the council meeting that was combined with the State of the Municipality Address (Soma) held at the Lillian Ngoyi Centre on Tuesday, May 31.

Maseko will take up the reins as MM on June 14.

The Democratic Alliance councillors, who were not present at the meeting, said all the council sittings that took place after Tuesday, March 31 is null and void.

“We will wait for the court outcome because we are a party that stands for the rule of law.

“The DA will do everything in its power to ensure that laws of this country are applied accordingly,” said James Masango.

The Economic Freedom Fighters said it doesn’t support the appointment of a new municipal manager before Felani Mndebele’s arbitration is completed.

According to the EFF, the municipal council should wait until the matter of the dismissed municipal manager, Mndebele, against the municipality is resolved. The matter is now in the hands of the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).

“We are entering into another serious problem. Why can we not wait until we see which direction Mndebele’s arbitration will take before we appoint a new municipal manager?,” asked EFF councillor, Thabiso Mofokeng.

“What will happen if Mndebele wins the case? Appointing a new MM now will then be a wasteful and fruitless expenditure that will have an impact on our municipality’ audit outcome.

“What is the rush?”

African Transformation Movement (ATM) councillor, Lwandile Ziwele, said his party supports the appointment of the new municipal manager who might be introduced during a special council sitting this month.

“We cannot hold the council ransom with a matter that is sub-judice. We have to continue with the council work.

“The new municipal manager was endorsed by us as the council, we support his appointment because he is a local guy who understands our municipality and he previously served as a municipal director,” said Ziwele.

The municipality terminated Mndebele’s employment contract after an extended court battle. The council took this decision at a special virtual council meeting last July.

Mndebele had been placed on precautionary suspension with full pay as recommended by the former municipality executive mayor, Thandi Ngxonono, who accused him and his officials of negligence in failing to deliver services to residents.

Mndebele disputed the suspension and took GMM to court.

There were also allegations made that Mndebele and his officials failed to deliver services to residents due to negligence, such as daily load-shedding, no removal of refuse and a serious backlog on most of the services that the municipality is supposed to deliver to the people.

The Middelburg High Court ruled that Mndebele had been unlawfully suspended and that the proceedings instituted against him were unlawful.

The municipality and its presiding officer (second respondent) were ordered to pay Mr Mndebele’s legal costs but Govan Mbeki Municipality’s leaders decided to appeal the court’s ruling.

The High Court in Middleburg then dismissed GMM’s leave to appeal against Mr Mndebele with costs.

That was, however, not the end of the battle.

When Mndebele tried to return to his job, he was again given the boot and the matter ended up at the CCMA where it is currently being handled.

The case was supposed to sit at the CCMA on Monday, June 6, but was postponed to July 11 to 15 for his senior counsel to be available for the arbitration.