Mashaba council review suffers setback

The Johannesburg city council has rescinded a decision to pass mayor Herman Mashaba’s institutional review.

The blow to planning by Mashaba’s administration came hours before the mayor and speaker Vasco Da Gama survived a motion of no confidence tabled by the ANC, with the support of the EFF.

The plan was initially passed on the second day of the September council meeting with the help of the coalition-led local government’s voting partner, the EFF.

But on Thursday it was the EFF that tabled a motion without notice that led to the decision being rescinded by the council.

The EFF motion took issue with the fact that the tender given to the joint venture NeoSSM JV had been set aside after a settlement was reached with local governance expert Dr Michael Sutcliffe’s company City Insight, which had also bid for the tender.

City Insight’s bid was set at R8.5m while Neo’s price was set at R29.9m.

City Insights had taken the city to court to interdict the tender, but the matter was settled after the council agreed to cancel Neo’s tender.

The EFF said in its motion that eight bids fell between the bids offered by City Insights and Neo. The fact that the city council had reached a settlement with City Insights “left us with more questions than answers”, the party said.

“It is therefore recommended that a systemic investigation must be done about the awarding of the tender,” the motion read out in council demanded. The party urged the administration to act “harshly and urgently” on the matter.

Mashaba’s institutional review was intended to cut the number of managers reporting directly to the city manager from 38 to 12. It would also have seen broad structural changes to the council and staff.

The institutional review also looked at the reintegration of the city’s entities, a key plan that Mashaba had put across when he was elected as mayor.

The motion by the EFF was accepted without the DA caucus putting up any resistance.

The ANC’s amendment to the motion to have the decision by council on the institutional review rescinded was also accepted without any problem.