Ngqushwa municipal manager suspended for a second time
Mpahlwa hits back with mayor Siwisa in her corner
The Ngqushwa municipal council has once again suspended municipal manager Misiwe Mpahlwa pending a disciplinary investigation into what it terms gross misconduct.
But Ngqushwa mayor Mnikelo Siwisa says there is something foul afoot in the council and the suspension was unfair and unprocedural.
Mpahlwa says she will not take the suspension lying down, and will challenge it legally if need be. It comes amid allegations she is resisting political interference in the supply chain management (SCM) process at the Peddie-based municipality — specifically around tenders for the building of seven community halls at over R10m.
It is the council’s second stab at suspending Mpahlwa. It did so on March 10 without giving her an opportunity to provide reasons why she should not be suspended. It rescinded this decision on March 16 and she was allowed to return to work.
At the same meeting Siwisa was mandated to issue her with a letter setting out two allegations of gross misconduct. Mpahlwa was given seven working days to provide reasons why she should not be suspended.
On March 25 Mpahlwa sent Siwisa and others a detailed four-page letter setting out these reasons.
But, after an unexpected special virtual council meeting on May 14, councillors resolved to suspend her. In a letter dated May 18, speaker Nombuyiselo Magingxa claims Mpahlwa had provided no substantive reasons that she should not be suspended.
The council decided to place her on precautionary suspension pending a disciplinary investigation. She was required to vacate her office and was prohibited from entering any municipal property.
Siwisa confirmed he had received her detailed response but says he was never provided with an opportunity to table an executive report on her response to council before it took its decision.
Mpahlwa this week confirmed she had received the letter of suspension and immediately forwarded it to her lawyer, Mike van der Veen at Wheeldon Rushmere Attorneys in Makhanda.
A letter penned by Van der Veen to Magingxa demands that council immediately rescind its decision and says Mpahlwa believes the “baseless allegations” against her were created with the sole intention of “removing her from her position as she is perceived as an obstacle to certain tenders at the municipality being granted to certain companies”.
It warns more details will be divulged in court papers should the need arise.
A reluctant Mpahlwa only confirmed she was approached by a senior ANC representative from the Amathole region and a senior official in the Amathole district municipality about readvertising multimillionrand tenders for building seven community halls.
She declined to do so as both were already at an advanced stage in the SCM process. She was warned she would lose her job for this disobedience.
The two allegations the council claims amount to gross misconduct include an integrated national electrification programme (INEP) project where the contractor had allegedly been paid without completing the work.
She was also asked to report on a tender for the resurfacing of certain roads in Peddie that was being challenged in court by the losing bidder.
In her four-page response, Mpahlwa points out she already tabled a report to council on the INEP project in October — but provides even more detail in her letter for council’s consideration.
Siwisa is vocal in his condemnation of the way council had proceeded against Mpahlwa. After suspending her, council mandated Siwisa to inform her of her suspension.
The provincial ANC had not responded at the time of writing.
Mpahlwa says she will not take the suspension lying down, and will challenge it legally if need be