Another setback for Mashaba’s plan
Council halts plan to cut municipal entities
The City of Johannesburg (CoJ) council has slammed the brakes on the plan by mayor Herman Mashaba to reincorporate municipal entities back into the city.
Last week, council rejected a report which sought its approval for a process to appoint senior managers as part of the city’s institutional review.
The city’s Staff Establishment Plan and Institutional Review report, which had already been approved by council over two months ago, involved integrating 13 municipal-owned entities, such as City Power, Joburg Water and PikItUp, into the city.
Mashaba’s spokesman Luyanda Mfeka said the council has decided to defer the implementation of the review following an agreement to set aside the award of a tender linked to the review.
This was the review plan’s second setback in as many months after an out-ofcourt settlement in October which compelled the city to cancel a R30-million tender awarded to a joint venture of Neo Afrika, owned by businessman Vivien Natasen, and a company known as SSM.
This came after Johannesburg had rejected a quote it deemed too low and, instead, went for the one costing R21-million more for work on reviewing and restructuring the city’s administration.
Losing bidders, City Insight, a Durban company, which has former eThekwini municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe as one of its directors, hauled the CoJ before the Durban High Court.
Johannesburg dodged the bullet and settled the dispute by cancelling the tender, which delayed the implementation of the review that Mashaba wanted finalised in 18 months.
The ANC in Johannesburg, which has opposed the review processes from the onset, said Mashaba had “20 questions” to answer. “We want to know which officials are responsible for the mess; have they been charged? And how far is the disciplinary action process?” Johannesburg ANC spokesman Jolidee Matongo asked.
He said they also wanted to know how much has been spent on the review process so far, including the out-of-court settlement with City Insight.
“We support a proper institutional reTwo view process where they first conduct proper research [on what works or doesn’t] before coming to council,” said Matongo.
Mfeka said Mashaba has already committed to tabling a report in council and oversight committees to “explain how the tender challenges” had come about.
The review has already sparked fears of job losses among employees of several of the entities.
Johannesburg currently has 15 municipal-owned entities with their own boards.
Mashaba has said he believes that the review would improve organisational effectiveness and performance, reduce operational costs, eliminate duplications and improve service delivery.