Acting City of Joburg municipal manager Floyd Brink has been placed on special leave, the city announced yesterday.
The city said it had placed Brink on special leave amid an ongoing investigation into allegations of misconduct related to R320 million procurement deals.
“This was done in order to give an independent investigator the space to investigate allegations of misconduct as expressed by law firm ENS’s forensic report into non-compliance with procurement processes for portable hand-held communication devices and CCTV equipment for the Public Safety Department,” the city said in a statement.
Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse said Christian Elhers would act in the position of the most senior bureaucrat in the city’s administration until a new appointment is made.
In what sources say may appear to be a fracture in the DA-led multi-party government, the DA has accused coalition partners ActionSA of siding with the EFF in an attempt to shoehorn Brink into the position.
Brink's suspension comes two weeks after he served the city’s corruption buster and head of the Group Forensic Investigative Services (GFIS), General Shadrack Sibiya, with a notice to revoke his investigative powers.
This was after Sibiya had finalised a forensic report into Brink's conduct.
Phalatse has since ordered that Sibiya be reinstated.
Brink is a controversial figure in the metro because of his alleged historical links to Julius Malema and the EFF.
In 2013, while a manager at the Limpopo Department of Roads and Transport, Brink was arrested as part of a sweeping corruption investigation that implicated a number of officials and business people.
He was tried and acquitted by a court of law in the same year.
The same investigation netted Malema, in addition to several associates of the former ANC Youth League leader, including his cousin Tshepo Malema.
Ehlers is considered to be a pair of safe and uncompromising hands, who has served the city under several political administrations, led by different political parties and politicians.
He has 34 years of local government experience, 17 of which are at executive management level, the city said in a statement.
“The appointment of a permanent city manager is of critical importance to the multi-party government and our priority of building a well-run city. In the interest of service delivery and the residents, we are working to conclude the process of appointing a permanent and capable woman or man as city manager,” Phalatse said.