Employment rules clear

THE renewal of employment contracts for the municipal managers of Walter Sisulu local and Chris Hani district municipalities is not at war with what is broadly envisaged in chapter 7 and section 152 of the constitution.

Neither is there any statute that vetoes the constitution insofar as it affirms the location of executive and legislative authority in local [government].

The amended Municipal Systems Act directs processes to unfold in the case of a vacated position and the language used doesn’t compel a municipality to cause incumbent posts to expire by whatever means.

The right to determine the financial and administrative affairs of local government are best left with the requisite council, not lost in some mischievous campaign to compel municipal councils to advertise municipal manager posts and those for managers reporting directly to the municipal managers.

Where a council is satisfied that objective grounds exist to extend an employment contract, it may do so within the ambit of its executive powers. It may choose to extend or to advertise, thereby allowing the incumbent contract to be sustained for its intended original contract period.

Those with amnesia conveniently forget so that the posts referred to here are termed “fixed fiveyear employment performance-based contracts”.

Frivolous and vexatious interests of nihilists cannot be allowed to cause administrative instability in councils. The intention here are probably not difficult to find. Councils consistently pay performance bonuses to officials who they will probably discard at the end of contract terms for reasons largely known to a minute core elsewhere. — Lulama Taleni, via e-mail