EFF fights Enoch Mgijima’s appointment of manager

THE EFF in Enoch Mgijima local municipality is challenging the appointment of municipal manager Chris Magwangqana.

EFF councillor Luthando Amos said they were meeting with their attorneys over the matter.

“We are challenging his appointment on the basis that the item which dealt with the appointment of the municipal manager was not on the council agenda in the council meeting he was appointed in,” he said.

Amos said even when the agenda was adopted, the item did not form part of the agenda.

“We were given it in council and it was a pink document marked ‘highly confidential’. When opposition parties challenged it, it was then changed to yellow and marked as an ‘addendum’,” said Amos.

He said for an item to be discussed in council it needed to be an addendum or be adopted as part of an agenda item.

According to Amos, the municipality contravened the Municipal System’s Act No 32 of 2000, section 57 (6) (a) which stipulates that the employment contract for the municipal manager must be a fixed term of employment up to maximum of five years, not exceeding a period ending one year after election of the next council of the municipality.

“Our council term ends in 2021 but his contract ends in 2023 … his contract on this basis can be set aside. The appointment must be done correctly for the sake of service delivery and the person behind him must take over,” he said.

Magwangqana said he was unaware of an investigation into him, and the first he’d heard was when he read it in the paper.

He said the Daily Dispatch had more information on his investigation than he did. “This is a trial by the media and those who are frustrated tenders,” he said.

Council speaker Mzoxolo Peter said opposition parties had raised the issue at a special council meeting last week. However, “we could not discuss the matter as the special council meeting was meant for urgent matters and we told them that we would deal with the appointment of the municipal manager at our ordinary council meeting”.

Peter said there was nothing wrong with the appointment of Magwangqana. “The screening report shows he is not implicated in anything,” said Peter. — looking for