Mayor of the eThekwini Municipality Cyril Xaba has threatened legal action against the MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Thulasizwe Buthelezi, accusing him of interfering in the internal affairs of the metro.
Xaba, in a public statement, threatened to seek “protection from the courts” against the Cogta MEC following tense exchanges between the City and the department in the past few weeks.
The mayor detailed his frustration last week, revealing that in a space of two weeks, he had received three different letters from Cogta. He said he received one letter after the other. Before he even had a chance to respond to one letter, he would get another one.
The mayor has accused Cogta of leaking these same letters to the media and the public before he had a chance to read them. However, Cogta accused the mayor of failing to respond to these letters. The MEC had sent letters after whistle-blowers raised allegations of wrongdoing in the municipality.
Top officials aware of the MEC’s thinking have warned that he is frustrated by the municipality’s inability to address numerous allegations of wrongdoing, adding that the Metro was edging closer to being placed under administration.
Last week, the tension between the Cogta and the City reached fever pitch when the municipality was ordered to reverse its decision to place the manager for Trading Services, Sibusiso Makhanya, on suspension.
Buthelezi warned that the suspension was irregular as the executive committee did not have the power to place the deputy city manager on suspension, adding that this power was reserved for the council.
Makhanya was suspended earlier this month following accusations that he had been negligent in his duties and caused the municipality to suffer R6.6 million in fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
In a statement, the City said: “Mayor Xaba is concerned about the manner in which the MEC for Co-operative, Governance and Traditional Affairs (Buthelezi) is handling the correspondence between the City and the department.”
Xaba said he found it rather distasteful that he continued to learn about the contents of the MEC’s letters from media reports and queries.
“The mayor has warned the MEC not to interfere with the internal disciplinary processes. It is surprising that when the City is applying consequence management, the MEC is issuing unlawful ultimatums, instead of assisting the process.
“The mayor construes this as nothing but naked abuse of power. For this reason, the mayor will seek court’s protection should the MEC continue with these tendencies,” said the statement.
On the issue of Makhanya’s suspension, the mayor pointed out that he (Makhanya) had referred a dispute about the fairness of his suspension to the South African Local Government Bargaining Council. He also disputed the claim that the executive committee did not have powers to suspend the deputy city manager, arguing that council had delegated the powers.
“In fact, our municipal council, before resolving to delegate the power to decide on the suspension to the executive committee, considered the practicality of convening its meeting, consisting of more than 250 people (inclusive of councillors and officials) within seven days of Mr Makhanya’s submissions since it has to hire an appropriate venue, which has to be available at such short notice, in order to comply with the applicable time-frames of the regulations.
“The mayor categorically denies that the suspension is irregular and therefore it will not be rescinded.”
The Cogta department said on Sunday that the MEC had noted the tone and content of the mayor’s letter.
The Mercury