New municipal boss faces battle after records burnt
WHEN Sidney Fadi stepped into his new position as municipal boss of the Sundays River Valley Municipality, he found a dysfunctional administration, burnt down buildings and all municipal records in ashes.
Three months later, Fadi, is battling court cases with companies claiming to have valid contracts with the municipality.
There are, however, no records to prove whether or not the claims are true.
“When the municipal buildings burnt down, the records were destroyed and now there are a number of people coming to us saying they have contracts with us which we’re not honouring,” Fadi said.
The former Kouga municipal manager said when he took over the reins at the Sundays River municipality, he felt a sense of deja vu as the Kouga Municipality had also been in tatters when he took over.
“I was in the exact same position in Kouga where there were a lot of investigations and accusations thrown our way,” Fadi said.
“And there, just like now, we took unpopular decisions, stood up against political leadership and there was tension, but we stuck with doing what we thought was right.”
Fadi said one of the main challenges in Sundays River was the social differences between the people involved in business, the politicians and the residents.
He said financially the municipality was not where it should be in terms of keeping up with its payments, being self-sustainable and its dilapidating infrastructure.
Since he started in October, Fadi said his main focus was getting the basics right – from checking the attendance registers and ensuring that staff were at work, to monitoring overtime claims.
“I found myself very operational whereas as a municipal manager you have to be at a strategic level,” he said.
“But at this level you become very operational because of the previous dysfunctionality with people coming to work as and when they pleased.
“It seems as if people are making money [from] overtime, which contributes to us not effectively delivering, because the little money we have is used in ways it shouldn’t be.”