Four Beaufort West Municipality big wigs have 7 days to halt suspensions

FOUR Beaufort West Municipality senior managers accused of misconduct have 7 days to make representations on why they should not be suspended.

Mayor Gideon Pieterse had received certain allegations of misconduct against the Director of Cooperative Services Amos Makendlana, Director of Infrastructure Denwin van Turha, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Nomfundo Ntsangani as well as the Municipal Manager, Jackson Penxa.

Pieterse said the officials had also failed to comply with and perform in terms of the financial recovery plan approved by the Western Cape government last month.

“These allegations to my knowledge are of a very serious nature. This failure is not in the best interests of the municipality and amounts to a breach of the code of conduct,” he said.

While Makendlana, van Turha and Ntsangani declined to comment yesterday, Penxa said he would be consulting his legal team.

Pieterse additionally recommended that council allow the municipality to appoint an independent investigator to undertake a full investigation of the allegations and submit a report within 30 days.

Community activist, Brian Jooste described the decision taken by council as a “disaster waiting to happen”.

“The allegations against all four directors are so weak and would not stand in the Labour Court, and this will result in lawsuits that will cost Beaufort West Municipality a lot of money, which they don’t have, as they still owe attorneys money in legal fees. It’s a disaster waiting to happen. The politicians are the ones to blame for interfering in administration of the municipality,” he said.

But a source close to the municipality said politicians were being used as “scapegoats” for the

problems within the administration.

“Money has been stolen and politicians have been blamed for that, while the administration is stealing money. Service delivery is at its lowest. We can't even remove waste in this town. Our people are paying through their necks for electricity whilst the service provider is the only one benefiting. And politicians are being blamed for all that,” said the source.

ANC Head of Communications Sifiso Mtsweni said the municipality had adopted a recovery plan which included targets for service delivery. However the plan was never implemented.

“Refuse is piling up in the streets and people are increasingly becoming frustrated. When such matters arise, we as political parties get blamed. This is why we have had to have clear agreements and targets with senior managers who are meant to ensure that they do their jobs.

It is in this regard that the mayor wrote to these senior managers to respond to matters put to them by Council in order to appraise the mayor about whether delivery on their set targets was taking place,. If not, why would they continue in their posts? This is all in the interest of service delivery and nothing to do with the personalities of the senior management.”