The Sekhukhune district municipality has been found guilty by the labour court of acting unlawfully by suspending municipal manager Titus Maroga responsible for the project management unit.
The respondents, the Sekhukhune district municipality, municipal manager Maureen Ntshudisane and the South African local government bargaining council, have been ordered to reinstate Maroga with immediate effect.
Maroga was suspended after allegations of maladministration were levelled against him, however, his legal representative, Sibusiso Nkosi of Nkosi SP Inc Attorneys, said the municipality abused its powers by failing to prove beyond reasonable doubt his client had committed any wrongdoing.
“It is clear that they are purging my client. They have found nothing against him to this day now they want to move him from despite the court order telling them to reinstate him to his previous position,” Nkosi said.
“The correct question you must ask is what informs the municipality to do so? We will leave no stone unturned until they respect the labour court order and ruling,” he said.
Sunday World has seen documents signed by Ntshudisane, who defied labour court order and redeployed Maroga to the position of manager of water conservation and demand management with effect from August 2022.
The letter was signed on August 30 2022, which has raised eyebrows.
A source questioned why the municipality would deploy a corrupt person.
“This clearly shows Maroga is disturbing them. They lost at the labour court and now they are trying tricks to remove this son of the soil who was never found guilty of anything,” the source said.
It has since emerged that Maroga’s job has been allegedly outsourced to a company known to Sunday World at a cost of R5-million. This is despite President Cyril Ramaphosa having recently called on municipalities to contain expenses by desisting from outsourcing services.
Responding to allegations that the municipality is targeting Maroga, mayor Julia Mathebe said she will ensure the matter is investigated.
“I have asked the council. I’m going to institute a forensic audit in order to root out corruption within the municipality as promised when I ascended the position as the mayor in June this year.
I have a lot of tasks. I discovered there is a lot of corruption activities taking place in the municipality,” Mathebe said.
In his response to Ntshudisane’s redeployment letter, Maroga said he doesn’t have the experience to perform those functions.
“In essence, I do not have the expertise to perform functions of the new placement position. I have no qualifications for the said new placement position,” he told Ntshudisane.
“Accepting placement to the new position will be against the interest of the employer. It will also compromise the main business of the employer, namely service delivery.”
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