Xasa taken to task over DG appointment

THE Democratic Alliance wants to ask cooperative governance and traditional affairs MEC Fikile Xasa why he employed a former Nelson Mandela Metro municipal manager whom the party hired and fired after just three months on the job.

Vuyo Mlokoti was appointed city manager at NMB late last year, but the appointment was reversed after it emerged that Mlokoti had allegedly left his previous employer – the South African State Information Technology Agency (Sita) – under a cloud.

The DA has now said it will write to Xasa asking him to explain why the department hired Mlokoti as deputy director-general in its Bhisho office.

However, in response to Daily Dispatch questions, both the department and Sita said Mlokoti had left following “a mutual separation agreement”.

DA provincial leader and NMB mayor Athol Trollip yesterday said he had instructed DA MPLs in the Eastern Cape legislature to follow up on the matter.

Mlokoti, a former Amathole district municipality accounting officer and a former Johannesburg deputy city manager, was Sita’s corporate services head before taking up the job at NMB.

His appointment there was short-lived as it was reversed by Trollip’s council before he took office on December 1.

Trollip said they had evidence that Mlokoti withheld information about the early termination of his contract with Sita.

“We had already appointed him as city manager when it came to our attention that he had been suspended and his contract terminated by his previous employer – critical information he never disclosed.

“This led to a serious breakdown in trust and we decided to reverse his appointment,” Trollip said. He added the matter was then reported to Xasa. “I was very shocked when he [Mlokoti] was then appointed in the MEC’s own department, despite this dodgy history he never declared,” Trollip said.

Sita spokesman Lucky Mochalibane said: “Mr Mlokoti and Sita entered into a mutual separation agreement.”

Mlokoti’s three-year contract at the agency started on July 1 2014, but ended on July 15 last year.

Mochalibane would not say why it was terminated early, citing “a confidentiality clause”.

Cogta spokesman Mamkeli Ngam, who said the department was answering on behalf of Mlokoti, said: “He resigned voluntarily without being put under pressure. Following his resignation, Mlokoti was also furnished with a certificate of service which stated that the reason for leaving was through resignation.”

Ngam said a copy of the certificate was given to Trollip on November 15.

However, Trollip could respond to Ngam’s claims.

Nehawu’s branch secretary at Cogta, Phelisa Sidondi, yesterday said they had also written to Xasa and provincial director-general Marion Mbina-Mthembu questioning Mlokoti’s appointment as it was “highly irregular, unlawful and inconsistent with the principles and values of our constitution”.

The union has also asked the Public Service Commission to investigate the appointment, claiming Mlokoti was never vetted, an allegation denied by Ngam. — not be reached later to