Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Nomusa Dube has today approached the justice system in a move aimed at ensuring that the AbaQulusi Municipality follows the right procedures in making senior appointments.
The MEC has today petitioned the Pietermaritzburg High Court to nullify the purported appointment of the municipality’s new municipal manager, arguing that the process of appointing him had been both procedurally and substantially flawed.
The MEC has proved that the municipal manager had misled the council in terms of the information he provided in his curriculum vitae in that he claimed amongst other things that he had lectured at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, which upon verification by the municipality was found to have been a false claim.
Further, the fact that the Deputy Mayor had hastily convened and chaired the meeting that purportedly appointed the new Municipal Manager while the mayor was present and had not been consulted also renders the entire process unprocedural and therefore a serious violation of local government prescripts.
“It is our commitment as the provincial democratic government to promote good and clean governance at local government level. In keeping with this commitment, we will ensure that proper processes are followed and that candidates provide correct information during the application processes.
We are taking this extra-ordinary step of requesting the court to set aside the purported appointment of the new AbaQulusi Municipality Municipal Manager and the unlawful meeting which approved the appointment as a matter of principle.
We are concerned that this may set a wrong precedent that it is permissible for candidates to misrepresent themselves in Senior Municipal positions as a way of gaining unfair advantage over other candidates” says MEC Dube.
“It must further be emphasized that a Municipal Manager is the Accounting officer and therefore his integrity and honesty must be beyond reproach. We are dealing with the case of Mr Mthembu in AbaQulusi on its own merit and on the basis of the evidence before us” Dube added.
