eThekwini mayor 'concerned' over Cogta MEC's 'abuse of power'

eThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba will not reverse a decision to suspend a senior manager despite an order from KwaZulu-Natal co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Thulasizwe Buthelezi.

Buthelezi instructed Xaba to rescind the decision to suspend deputy city manager for trading services Sibusiso Makhanya last Tuesday, saying the municipality’s executive committee (Exco) had no authority to make such decisions.

Makhanya was suspended on September 14 after an Exco meeting for alleged dereliction of duty. The city claims he failed to respond to emails sent to him in connection with a R63.5m lawsuit lodged by a service provider against the municipality.

The city subsequently failed to defend its case and was issued with a default judgment and incurred a further R6.6m in interest and legal fees, which is deemed wasteful and fruitless expenditure.

Buthelezi said only the municipal council, not the Exco can make such a decision and gave Xaba three days to set aside the suspension.

Xaba on Friday defended the city saying the council had delegated the power to decide on Makhanya’s suspension to the executive committee.

“Our council before resolving to delegate the power to decide on the suspension to the Exco considered the practicality of convening its meeting consisting of more than 250 people (inclusive of councillors and officials) within seven days of Makhanya’s submissions since it has to hire an appropriate venue which has to be available at short notice, to comply with the applicable time frames of the regulations.

“It also ensured there were appropriate checks and balances by delegating to a structure of 10 members, comprising five political parties, which are the ANC, DA, IFP, EFF and the NFP.”

Xaba added Makhanya challenged his suspension by referring a dispute about the fairness of that decision to the South African Local Government Association (Salga) on the same Tuesday Buthelezi called for his reinstatement.

He noted Buthelezi is cited as a third respondent in Makhanya’s referral “for reasons that are unknown to the mayor”.

Xaba also addressed Makhanya’s concerns about the involvement of municipal manager Musa Mbhele’s involvement, saying Mbhele was not the one who made the decision to suspend Makhanya but he was implementing the decision of the executive committee made on behalf of the council.

Xaba “categorically denies the suspension is irregular and it will not be rescinded. He regards the instruction of the MEC as an unlawful encroachment on the functional or institutional integrity of the municipality.”

Xaba cautioned Buthelezi against interfering in internal disciplinary processes and said his conduct was tantamount to “abuse of power”.

This is the latest in a series of public standoffs between Buthelezi and Xaba since they assumed their roles in June and July.

It started when Buthelezi released a media statement about allegations of fraud, corruption and maladministration in the city.

Xaba challenged anyone who had evidence of such to present it to the authorities, not the media, and expressed concern about the leaking of “confidential” correspondence — from Cogta to his office — to the media.

He said there was no leak of his responses to Buthelezi who, at the time, had written him three letters.

However, in his letter on Tuesday, Buthelezi said he had not received any response to his letters from Xaba.

Xaba said he had responded to all the letters Buthelezi sent him including the one sent last Monday and he was ready to release these letters to the public should the MEC gave him the go-ahead.

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