Umdoni Municipality held a special council meeting on February 14 to seek approval from the council on the appointment of acting General Manager: Planning and Development.
The fixed term employment contract for the then GM expired in November last year. The department had four line managers: Building and Control, Environmental Management, Local Economic Development and Senior Town Planner (Ugu Shared Services).
The town planner, Raymond Ntombela, seemed to have the most experience, so he was appointed to the position for a period of three months. His three months in office commenced on February 15 and will come to an end on May 14.
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The appointment was approved by 33 councillors, eight were against it and one abstained from voting. The DA, who made up part of the ‘against’ count, did not get a chance to give reasons as to why they opposed the appointment.
However, Councillor Eddie Baptie did provide us with comment:
“Regarding the appointment for an acting incumbent in the vacant post of General Manager Planning and Development, the DA caucus did not support the recommendation to place the town planner in that capacity for the following reasons.”
“The town planner is on a fixed-term contract that ends soon and is therefore not a permanent employee. It makes more sense to provide experience for a permanent incumbent.”
“There is also a conflict of interest, given that the town planner is the authorised officer for town planning applications and will have to adjudicate his own conduct in the handling of such applications.”
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“Currently there are numerous town planning approvals that the town planner has given without the authority to do so and the municipality and developers are at risk, while the rights of other citizens have been violated.”
“That department requires additional capacity and this could easily be achieved with a secondment from COGTA , and avoid the conflict of interest at the same time. The acting MM did not see fit to pursue this option.”
There was also supposed to be a presentation of a COGTA investigation, but it did not happen, as representatives could not attend yet again.
Comment from the DA caucus:
“Regarding the much-awaited report on COGTA’s forensic investigation into malpractice in Umdoni, the mayor reported that COGTA had caused the postponement of the special meeting due to their non-availability two weeks ago. They were also unavailable last week for the same given reasons, namely ‘Provincial and Cabinet Lekgotlas’. The excuses are consistent with COGTA’s deliberate attempts to hide this report for close on a year.
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“It is noteworthy that this is not the only investigation that COGTA has indicated it will undertake in Umdoni. There is also the long outstanding investigation into a R12-million grant that was given for Scottburgh’s CBD upgrade, which Umdoni has not yet accounted for. In addition there is the investigation into R150-million in irregular expenditure.”
These unresolved ‘investigations’ are not solving any problems or changing any bad practices. They suggest that there is a problem in COGTA as well as in Umdoni.
“The suspension of Umdoni’s former municipal manager, Xolani Luthuli, prior to his contract ending, and the continued vacancy of this most critical post in the institution, places serious doubt on COGTA’s role in bringing stability and good governance to our communities.”
“How much longer will the political leadership in Umdoni continue to dally while corruption and non-delivery continue to blossom. We pray that Umdoni’s ZUMA day will arrive soon.”
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