EThekwini to name new city manager
The eThekwini Municipality is expected to name the current Cape Town port manager, Sipho Nzuza, as its new city manager to replace Sbu Sithole, whose five-year contract expired at the end of 2016. Sithole allegedly had a frosty relationship with eThekwini’s mayor.
The eThekwini Municipality is expected to name Cape Town port manager Sipho Nzuza as its new city manager to replace Sbu Sithole, whose five-year contract expired at the end of 2016.
Sithole had a frosty relationship with eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede, who ordered him to take compulsory leave just weeks before his contract formally expired.
Sithole is credited with balancing the books of the city and was instrumental in its achieving a clean audit in the 2015-16 financial year for the first time in its post-apartheid history. He is said to have fallen victim to the factional fighting in the province.
Sources said Nzuza had been given the nod by Gumede and her inner circle, all of whom are said to have resented Sithole for “being his own man”.
Sithole had a close working relationship with Gumede’s predecessor, James Nxumalo.
Before being head-hunted to take over as the Cape Town port manager, Nzuza worked as chairman of eThekwini Municipality’s audit committee for six years, a position in which he reported directly to Sithole.
When the position of eThekwini city manager was advertised in October 2016, Sithole submitted his application for the position. Many observers saw the decision as “futile” because it was an open secret that Gumede wanted her own man to occupy this position.
On Sunday, a weekend newspaper published the leaked interview score sheets, in which Nzuza scored higher than Sithole, whose score was lower than all short-listed candidates.
Another source within the municipality, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the leaks were engineered to justify Sithole’s axing.
“There is no doubt that Sithole was doing a good job. But his only crime was that he had worked closely with James Nxumalo. When Mama [Zandile Gumede] tried to make him bend to her will, he refused on ethical grounds.
“Since then, they did not see eye to eye and it was only a matter of time before he lost his job. Luckily for her, Sithole’s contract was up for renewal and she had an ideal opportunity to get rid of him,” the source said.
Another source said the city was now finalising terms with Nzuza. “He will be announced once the finer details have been ironed out.”
Mthunzi Gumede, the spokesman for the eThekwini mayor, declined to comment on how the interview score sheet was leaked. He said the city would soon announce the successful candidate.
“Once the process has been concluded, we will then announce to the public who the candidate is. We reserve our right to comment on the matter [of the leaked interview score sheets] at this stage,” he said.
Opposition parties said the leaking of interview score sheets and the treatment meted out to Sithole was unwarranted.
Zwakele Mncwango, DA KwaZulu-Natal leader, said he would write to Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Des van Rooyen and his KwaZulu-Natal counterpart, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, to express his party’s displeasure at how the process of selecting the new eThekwini city manager has been handled.
The IFP also expressed its disgust on this matter.
IFP chief whip in eThekwini Municipality, Mdu Nkosi, said: “Sithole did not belong to the ‘right’ faction of the ruling party, and that is why he was axed.”
Sifiso Kunene, a KwaZulu-Natal-based political analyst, said the writing had been on the wall for some time that Sithole would not retain his job.