Leave appointments to city manager and staff

THE plan to unseat the mayor allegedly came after weeks of simmering tensions between Mongameli Bobani and Athol Trollip “over the hiring and firing of some metro managers” (“ANC plan to unseat Trollip falls flat”, February 1).

That suggests politicians are getting involved in who should or shouldn’t be fired.

While I understand the whole municipal council having some involvement in the hiring of executive managers, in my view that should effectively be to rubber-stamp the recommendation of the city manager and that of a correctly constituted, mostly independent, interview panel.

In any event, the Systems Act also prescribes that appointments of senior managers must be effected by the municipal council in consultation with the city manager.

What does irk me, however, is the continued interference of politicians, first, in decisions as to whether or not managers ought to be disciplined, and second, whether or not managers ought to be dismissed if they are found guilty of gross misconduct.

If, on the face of it, there is enough evidence to suggest that a manager has committed misconduct, he/she should be subjected to a disciplinary process.

Once an independent tribunal has considered all the evidence and made a recommendation of dismissal, politicians should simply endorse the outcome.

Unless, of course, some or other glaring mistake has been made, which has been brought to the council’s attention.

Why should a senior manager, guilty of gross misconduct, which ultimately affects citizens, remain in office simply because he/she sits on the right side of the political fence or is easily swayed by pressure from above?

That was often the problem with the old regime.

It interfered in disciplinary processes by selectively applying discipline, getting rid of managers who didn’t toe the party line or ousting those who weren’t easily swayed to do the wrong thing.

No doubt, this was so that it could control the day-to-day operational affairs of the metro (including procurement, in particular).

Politicians would serve us better if they kept their noses out of disciplinary matters which are operational rather than executive processes by nature.

Grant Howard, Port Elizabeth