Note to Editors: Please find English and Afrikaans soundbites by Ald Cilliers Brink here and here
It was just a matter of time before the ANC coalition in the Tshwane Metro moved against professional senior managers in the municipal administration to make way for their own cadres.
In order to have its way with Tshwane, as it has done in Joburg, the ANC and its coalition partners need the city’s senior management staffed by people appointed for loyalty instead of merit.
As has been the ANC’s practice over many years, and a pattern discerned by the Zondo Commission, the deployed cadres can then help funnel taxpayer’s money to ANC politicians.
From reporting by TimesLive, it appears that the ANC wants to use a letter by Gauteng MEC for local government Jacob Mamabolo as a pretext for clearing out the city’s top management.
The letter, now in open circulation, states that a recent appointment of a senior manager by the city council is invalid due to the erroneous composition of the interview panel. The panel, so the MEC opines in the letter, cannot have more than one councillor.
This is a complete change in the interpretation of senior management appointment regulations by the Gauteng provincial government, and probably legally erroneous. As an aside, other metros have appointed senior managers using the same interview panel composition.
But the point is that the Gauteng MEC for local government already assented to the appointment of Johann Mettler and seven of the city’s other senior managers which the ANC coalition now aim to replace with pliant, deployed cadres.
This new interpretation of the senior management recruitment regulations cannot be applied retroactively to invalidate appointments which do not suit the ANC and their proxy parties in Tshwane.
It took the DA and our coalition partners many years to ensure the recruitment of professional, apolitical senior managers in Tshwane, one important battle in the war on corruption in the city.
Now, even before the residents of Tshwane have had their say in a local government election, the ANC and their proxy parties want to reverse the progress.
The damage and instability which such a move will inflict will prejudice the ability of future mayors to improve Tshwane’s finance and governance.
The DA will not stand by to watch this happen, and will be watching the next moves by the mayor and her ANC coalition very carefully.