ANC councillor raises red flags over top jobs

Crosby Kolela concerned that positions being filled without council approval

Senior managers are being employed without council approval and are receiving inflated salaries or increases without the decision-making body’s knowledge, while a disgraced former mayor is being set up to walk into a top position in Buffalo City Metro.

These allegations are contained in an exigency motion tabled by ANC councillor Crosby Kolela during a virtual council meeting on Friday. In his motion, Kolela calls for an investigation into how some general managers and managers were appointed and granted salary increases.

The vocal Kolela says questionable appointments and irregularities have shaken the administration’s top echelons.

He questions the grounds on which former Inxuba Yethemba mayor Ray Shweni — who misused R125,000 of taxpayers’ money on ANC rallies in 2017 — was appointed as a human resources general manager.

His first day is believed to be on Tuesday. Mayor Xola Pakati neither denied nor confirmed Shweni’s appointment, saying only it was a “rumour”.

Shweni’s rumoured appointment again highlighted a division in the ANC caucus, with Pakati pushing for discussion on the matter to be deferred to September’s council meeting while his deputy, Zoliswa Matana, wants the matter discussed on Friday.

In October SA’s public protector, advocate Busiswe Mkhwebana, found Shweni misappropriated R125,000 of his former council’s funds to hire a vehicle to take 200 ANC members to party events in Johannesburg and Mthatha in 2017. This was after Inxuba Yethemba DA caucus leader Monde Desha filed a complaint with her office.

Shweni not only wasted taxpayers’ money but claimed it was for “study trips for councillors and ward committee members to learn good governance” when he motivated for the municipality to foot the bill for ANC business.

In his motion, Kolela said Shweni’s unconfirmed appointment had been brought to his attention and that he was concerned that some senior administration posts were being filled without council, the highest decision-making body, approving them.

He asked council “on which moral ground” the appointment was based.

Kolela asked that a council meeting in September be provided with a detailed report on Shweni’s pending appointment and “its implications”.

He also called for a probe of all the latest appointments of general managers, managers, programme managers and senior managers at the metro’s administration headquarters.

Kolela further questioned the appointment, in the legal unit, of someone with alleged close links to Pakati — while he also asked council to probe how a general manager at the mayor’s office was moved from salary grade 18 to 19, allegedly earning himself an annual salary of R1.7m, without knowledge of council.

Kolela said another general manager was appointed without meeting requirements, while another was allegedly appointed despite having resigned from the municipality “under a dark cloud”.

“This man chaired the disbanded selection committee and is now chairing one of our bid committees.

“This is despite the insurmountable damage that the selection committee has done to the image of the municipality, damage confirmed by the auditor-general and Mpac reports.

“It has also come to my attention that a certain [official] who resigned from the institution under the cloud of controversy of deviation, was appointed as operation manager in the office of the city manager [Andile Sihlahla] and he was paid above the normal entry level,” Kolela said.

“Can this council be provided with information as to why this official was paid even higher than general managers. If that is true, is there no irregular expenditure on this matter?”

He also demanded a report on the appointment of three general managers at a supply chain unit.

Discussion on Kolela’s motion was shelved for September’s council meeting.

But this was not before cracks in BCM s ANC caucus were laid divided’on whether the issue of bare, with party members appointments should be debated before Shweni assumes duty on September 1, or wait for the scheduled meeting later in September.

Matana said Shweni would already have assumed the position by the time of the next meeting, and therefore it needed to be discussed before that.

But Pakati said: “We can’t enter into a debate on it without a report. We should allow for a report to be tabled in our next meeting. To allow discussions based on allegations will not be fair.”

Council speaker Humphrey Maxhegwana agreed with Pakati and shelved discussions for the next meeting.

Friday’s meeting, which went on until 9pm after it had started after 10am, was meant to discuss the proposed relocation of Chippa United FC from Nelson Mandela Bay Metro to BCM but that agenda item was deferred to a special council meeting this week.

On Sunday Maxhegwana said no date was confirmed for this week’s meeting.

Discussion on Kolela’s motion was shelved for September’s council meeting