Politics sink appointment of new municipal manager
2005-11-10
Susan Botha
POLITICAL interference has sunk Drakenstein municipal council’s efforts to appoint a new municipal manager.
The mayoral committee is allegedly being forced to start the whole appointment process anew, because of interference by the ANC at provincial level.
Although Drakenstein was to have appointed a new municipal manager by June this year, the first round of interviews for the position did not have the “desired outcome” and therefore the process will start anew.
This, according to informed sources, is the latest development in the ongoing saga for the appointment of a chief executive officer for Drakenstein.
Apparently the new advertisements should have gone out on 30 October, with the new closing date on 14 November.
If everything goes according to plan, the appointee should start on 1 February - just four months short of a year on the original commencement date for the new manager.
So what went wrong? Political interference by the ANC on provincial level in the choice of manager on provincial level is cited as the cause of the delay.
The previous municipal manager, Jacques Carstens, retired at the end of January, after he and Jan Coetzee, Head of Electricity, and Johan Lambrechts, Head of Community Services, were paid a total of R7,3 million in respect of severance pay.
They had to make room for the new macro-structure for Drakenstein, which had been approved by Council in April 2004.
The structure provides for a municipal manager and four directors in place of the previous manager and six heads of departments.
Ratepayers should have realised there were problems when Coetzee was hired back on a consultancy basis not long after retiring. In the meantime Khaya Mrali, Head of Corporate Services, is the acting Municipal Manager.
The original appointment process started on 21 May this year with an advertisement in two national newspapers.
The proposed schedule was for interviews to be held before the end of May, giving the successful candidate the opportunity to give notice in June and start on 1 July.
The process to appoint the four directors would have started in June and they would have commenced duties in September.
A total of 113 applications for the position of municipal manager were received and a consultant was contracted to assist with the appointment process.
At this stage the local Council allegedly received a letter from ANC provincial secretary, Mcebisi Skwatsha, reminding them that the appointment of a municipal manager had to be undertaken in consultation with the provincial leadership.
According to the time frames given to the consultants, Career Vision, all reference checks would have to be completed by 3 June, with interviews on 8 and 9 June.
However, the Councillors were concerned about the processes and the quick pace at which everything was happening. They also felt there were not enough names on the shortlist.
It was decided to postpone the interviews to 27 and 28 June. Four more names were added to the list.
A sub-committee, consisting of the Mayor and all members of the Mayoral Commitee was sanctioned by Council on 21 June to conduct interviews and submit a final decision. The Speaker, Chief Whip and chairpersons of the two unions received observer status.
Special meetings of the Mayoral Committee and Council were even scheduled for the week of 27 June to finalise the appointment.
According to informed sources, a letter was sent from the Mayor’s office to Skwatsha on 23 June, with a copy to Mike Mgajo, the chairperson of the Boland Region of the ANC, with a schedule of candidates jointly selected by the Mayoral Committee and Career Vision.
The twelve candidates were Dr Joey Cupido, Dr Sidima Kabanyane, Johann Mettler, Geraldine Mettler, Dikeledi Elizabeth Mailula, Khaya Mrali, Bernado Maralack, Allen Paulse, Craig Sheldon, Dr Abbas Shaker, Thozamile Sompani and Anand Singh.
They were given written tests on 27 June, with the interviews on 28 June.
Questions were aimed at the key performance areas of a municipal manager: administration; accountability regarding finances, personnel and service delivery; the process to implement and maintain the IDP; the implementation and management of an outcome-based performance management system; development of applicable policy frameworks and by-laws; and community participation.
The shortlist compiled after this, allegedly contained the names of Allen Paulse (former mayor and currently manager of the municipality in Worcester), Dr Joey Cupido (senior health official) and Khaya Mrali (acting manager).
Council went into three weeks’ recess at this stage and at their return, four candidates were invited back for a second round of interviews.
They included the original three, with Dr Kabanyane’s name added to the list. Kabanyane’s inclusion was based on a political rationale that was “ignored previously”.
The interviews were conducted on 1 August. On 8 August the Mayor sent a letter to Skwatsha, advising him that they wished to finalise the process at meetings of the Mayoral Committee on 24 August and Council on 30 August.
Skwatsha apparently replied in a letter to the ANC Regional Secretary Boland and Mayor Bailey on 30 August stating that the Provincial Working Committee had on 29 August recommended that the process be repeated within two months and that a different consultancy be appointed by council.
Bailey allegedly replied to Skwatsha on the same day, requesting him to confirm his directive, in the light of the additional expenditure (about R180 000 has been spent to date) and how it would be
justified in terms of the Municipal Management Act.
On 2 September, say the sources, the Mayor sent a fax to Premier Ebrahim Rasool, asking him for guidance because the ANC Provincial Executive Committee was pushing for the appointment of a candidate “that was only in 11th position” on the shortlist, while the Mayoral Committee had concensus on the first three candidates.
A very frustrated Bailey apparently warned councillors that those who voted in favour of repeating the whole process would have to take the financial responsibility for fruitless expenditure.
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