Municipal chief hit with suspension
2007-07-12
THE Drakenstein mayoral committee has temporarily suspended the municipal manager, Dr Sidima Kabanyane, due to a “breach of faith”, which has been dubbed a “witch hunt” by the ANC opposition.
“There was no alternative but to temporarily suspend Dr Kabanyane from all his duties, pending an investigation into his competence as municipal manager,” said the acting executive mayor, Wilhelm Nothnagel (ID), this week, while mayor Koos Louw (DA) was away on holiday.
Kabanyane was informed of his suspension late on Thursday afternoon, after the animosity of the ruling DA/ID coalition towards the ANC appointed municipal manager had came to a head.
The suspension follows weeks of rumours that the ruling coalition had discovered that six political support staffers appointed by the ANC could not be replaced by their own support staff, as their contracts were fixed at five years although a Mayoral Council decision stipulated that the contracts should be linked to the Mayco term.
Complaints about the contracts, which were authorised by Corporate Affairs chief Khaya Mrali, were laid with Kabanyane, demanding that Mrali be suspended. Kabanyane did not act.
This week former mayor Charmaine Manuel (ANC) told Paarl Post that she herself had authorised the five year contracts after the floor crossing brought the ANC into power in 2003.
“To allege that the Municipal Manager altered political contracts is not true.
“The facts are that the Human Resource Manager, Hawa Khan, drafted the initial contracts of the political support staff.
“The appointees brought it to my attention that the appointment period did not comply with the period of five years as advertised.
“I subsequently instructed the Head of Corporate Services, Khaya Mrali, to amend the contracts so as to be in line with the advertised appointment period.”
Due to the wording of the contracts, considerable lump sum payments may now be required to get rid of the current support staff, at the taxpayers’ expense.
Another complaint which has surfaced against Kabanyane is that he has not acted on the request of the WCC that one of its two councillors, Philmon Maxam, should be removed from Council as he has been suspended by his party.
Maxam is expected to cross the floor to the ANC in September.
Other allegations relate to the fact that the performance management system and the portfolio committees have not yet been launched, and include complaints of nepotism, obstructionism and lack of leadership.
"When information was requested from the office of the municipal manager, it was either not forthcoming or it was filtered in an unacceptable manner. "
According to Manuel, she is shocked by the “callousness” with which the DA/ID coalition is treating Kabanyane: “His suspension is based on flimsy reasons that have no basis in facts.
“The DA/ID alliance conveniently forgets that the performance management system could not be implemented without the finalisation of the macro-structure, that had been outsourced to a service provider from the University of Stellenbosch.
“This was a decision taken by a multi-party committee that was constituted by Council comprising of the DA, ID and the ANC,” Manuel said.
The delay with the mactrostructure is ascribedby the ANC to infighting between the DA and ID because of the ID’s insistence on 50% representation for their candidates in senior positions.
A special council meeting has been called for Monday, to formalise the suspension.
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