Toe-to-toe battle for crucial BCM post

Eight candidates have hat in ring for key supply chain management position

It is showdown time at Buffalo City Metro with the lucrative and critical supply chain management (SCM) job on the line for ambitious rivals.

Hopefuls include the current acting SCM general manager, Mercy Fraser, and senior buyer in the department, Nomandla Mxo.

There are six other candidates vying for the hot seat which was vacated by Thembelani Sali when he was fired by the metro earlier this year.

The position has been vacant for the past four years when Sali languished on suspension on full pay amounting to R2.1m. He is an accused in the Nelson Mandela funeral scandal.

Fraser and Andile Xoseka, the general manager for assets who is also seconded to assist Fraser at SCM, are both being investigated by the Hawks on corruption allegations in connection with a R30m tender earmarked for Covid-19 food vouchers.

Six computers were removed from several officials by Hawks’ officers. BCM has paid more than R70,000 for legal fees to defend Fraser and Xoseka in litigation in the “matter of BCM vs minister of police and another”.

BCM is not paying legal fees for the other four employees whose computers were confiscated by the Hawks as part of the food voucher investigation.

Last month, the Dispatch reported that Fraser was found to have contravened the municipal supply chain management (SCM) regulation 29 (4) when she participated in two bid committee meetings that dealt with the appointment of service providers in a R117m tender to procure protective clothing.

Fraser participated in two tiers of the tender committee meeting process.

Mxo, a senior buyer, received a letter of complaint on Sunday, three days before her interviews from her competitor, Fraser, in which she charged her for insubordination claiming failure to obey “all lawful and reasonable instructions”.

Fraser also charged Mxo with gross violation of the ICT policy, unduly attempting to influence “certain” individuals of the municipality to obtain “an appointment”, for giving conflicting instructions to an employee — and ordered her to stop processing requisitions.

BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said they would not be responding to the Dispatch inquiries as the information was in “contravention of the BCM employer/employee relations policy”.

“In all fairness, we cannot be running an institution via a newspaper,” he retorted.