The appointment of eThekwini metro city manager has been put on ice with opposition parties calling for the selection process to be started from scratch on the grounds that it was politically manipulated.
On Wednesday while addressing the media in Durban aimed at updating the public about the state of the city, mayor Mxolisi Kaunda refuted claims that the ANC had pushed for its candidate to be appointed as city manager.
“There was no political interference in the selection and interviewing process of the eThekwini municipal manager. We conducted the process clinically and there should be fundamental reasons why the recommendations of the panel can’t be accepted. These cannot be political reasons,” said Kaunda.
Abantu Batho Congress (ABC), a party which saved the ruling party from losing the metro through a coalition of opposition parties, made a surprise move on Tuesday during a council sitting convened to adopt the panel recommendations.
Party leader Philani Mavundla held a swinging vote and joined the IFP, ActionSA, DA, and the EFF in rejecting the name that had been put forward. The motion subsequently did not see the light of day.
Sunday World revealed last week that the filling of the crucial vacancy might be a subject of litigation after the opposition parties accused the ruling party in the province of meddling in the interviewing process.
At the heart of the matter is that the ANC’s provincial deployment committee had allegedly endorsed Maxwell Mbili, municipal manager of Ray Nkonyeni in KwaZulu-Natal south coast to take over the position.
eThekwini metro is the province’s economic powerhouse and the city manager controls more than R52.3-billion budget made up of an operating budget of R47-billion and a capital budget of R5.3-billion. The signing power on lucrative contracts is also vested on the city manager.
The last man to occupy the top post was Sipho Nzuza, who vacated the position unceremoniously after being linked to a multimillion-rand corruption scandal relating to a 2017 Durban Solid Waste tender that was unduly awarded to cronies of politicians.
The office of the auditor-general, provincial Cogta (cooperative governance and traditional affairs), and National Treasury have raised issues about the failure of the metro to make a permanent appointment for the city’s administrative head.
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