Row over BCM appointment of health official
Inspector claims requirements for post not met
ASENIOR Buffalo City Metro manager was hired for a -million-a-year position despite allegedly not meeting all the requirements for the top post.
Fikiswa Jakeni-Gomba was given the nod as BCM municipal health services general manager earlier this year.
This despite her not being registered with the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA), the council’s inspector Mamadiga Mamabolo claimed yesterday.
Part of Jakeni-Gomba’s responsibilities include ensuring food and water is safe for consumption, and monitoring, coordinating and controlling staff in the health and environmental health administration.
Requirements for the position, advertised on May 16, were stated clearly as needing registration with the HPCSA or the South African Nursing Council or to be registered within six months.
Mamabolo told the Dispatch last week the council was now considering laying criminal charges against Jakeni-Gomba.
“I’m going to send compliance letters to the municipality, saying they must release her from her duties until such time she is registered, because the [relevant] act doesn’t allow for a person to hold that position without registration,” said Mamabolo.
City bosses had been sending her from pillar to post since she started her investigation into Jakeni-Gomba’s appointment.
Contacted yesterday, JakeniGomba denied she did not meet the requirements for the post, saying: “These are serious allegations and I’m denying them. I don’t want to comment further.”
The allegations against JakeniGomba come a few months after the SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) lodged an objection to the advert for the post JakeniGomba filled. In a letter addressed to BCM’s corporate services manager, Sizwe Mbuyazwe, dated May 25, Samwu stated that the requirements stipulated in the advert were different from those in the draft description of the post already submitted to human resources. The union said the metro had filled a position which still needed to be evaluated by the evaluation committee.
Mamabolo said having an unregistered person in the post could have serious ramifications. “An unregistered person might give wrong conclusions when, for instance, testing water for human consumption. Then people get sick and then what? That’s why we are so strict with the registration. We need a person who is qualified and registered.”
Contacted for comment, metro spokesman Sibusiso Cindi said Fikiswa Jakeni-Gomba’s employment by BCM was “a private matter, a contractual agreement between the BCM and the said employee, and thus I’m unable to comment in the media about it”. —