Court declares reappointment of Mnyimba invalid

District municipality allocates millions of rand to its local councils

A group of more than 130 Amathole district municipality employees have won the first round in their bid to have their municipal manager Thandekile Mnyimba kicked out of his office.

This as the high court sitting in East London on Tuesday declared his five-year employment contract invalid. The controversial council decision to hire him last month was declared invalid and set aside.

Mnyimba, who was first appointed by the Amathole council in 2017, had his contract renewed for the next five years last month.

This after the defiant ADM council approved his reappointment, amid an outcry from hundreds of ADM employees, the provincial ANC, and even Cogta MEC Xolile Nqatha.

After the ADM council endorsed Mnyimba’s reappointment on May 16, a group of 131 employees put their hopes on the court.

On Tuesday, high court judge Belinda Hartle declared the council’s resolution to hire the under-fire municipal manager, invalid.

In her draft order on Tuesday, Hartle said any contract of employment concluded between the first respondent, ADM, and Mnyimba, pursuant to the decision of council on May 16, “is hereby declared invalid and set aside”.

Mnyimba, his employer ADM, mayor Nceba Ndikinda, ADM council and Nqatha, who were all cited as respondents in the court application which was not opposed, were also ordered to pay the costs.

The court order came on the day

Ndikinda delivered his state of the district address in Dutywa, with Mnyimba by his side. Numerous attempts to get comment from ADM proved fruitless on Tuesday.

The legal representative of the 131 victorious employees, Wesley Pretorius, on Tuesday said the court order had vindicated the employees in their fight against Mnyimba’s reappointment.

Pretorius said there was a possibility for Mnyimba or ADM to appeal the court decision, but that would be difficult, because the court would want to know since they had not opposed the matter in court, on what basis they would appeal it.

“This court victory is a vindication of the position taken by these workers when they said it was unlawful to employ Mnyimba in the first place.

“As of this order, he is no longer the municipal manager, as far as court is concerned,” he said.

Nqatha on Tuesday welcomed the court order.

South African Municipal Workers Union provincial secretary Luzuko Yalezo also welcomed the judgment.

“This is what we have always wanted. These employees went to court on their own, but we too as the union took this reappointment for a review in court, so we are happy for this victory for all concerned ADM employees,” Yalezo said.

In their court papers, the employees charged that Mnyimba’s reappointment was done while the incumbent “lacked both general and minimum competency levels necessary for his reappointment”.

In a bid to address water and sanitation challenges in its five local municipalities, and to mitigate the crippling effects of a devastating drought, Amathole district municipality on Tuesday allocated millions of rand to its local councils.

District mayor Nceba Ndikinda, who on Tuesday said they had recently approved a budget of R2.5bn “to ensure that quality service delivery reached all Amathole communities, said the district’s R692m capital budget would go a long way in addressing water and sanitation challenges in all its five rural municipalities.

Delivering his state of the district address at King Hintsa TVET College in Dutywa, Ndikinda said his council was serious about making inroads in the provision of water and sanitation infrastructure.

Ndikinda said ahead of the November 1 local government elections they discovered that the people of Amahlathi municipality were “impatient with the slow pace of housing service delivery”, while those from Mnquma municipality were “tired of the poor conditions of their roads”.

He said the people of Mbhashe had asked for acceleration of electricity supply to their homes, while those from Raymond Mhlaba municipality, wanted a reliable water supply.

“The people of Ngqushwa want better access to health facilities.

“The people of Great Kei municipality want employment opportunities, while the people of Amathole want to see their public representatives more on the ground with them.”

Municipal disaster relief grant funding for drought intervention in Mnquma and Mbhashe, to the amount of R13m, has been approved.

In Amahlathi municipality, the mayor said that an investment of R64m will be made, with R18m of the amount for sanitation projects around Carthcart and Stutterheim.

Ndikinda said a further R46m would be made available to Amahlathi for some infrastructure projects.

A large allocation of their regional bulk infrastructure grant, totalling R183m, Ndikinda said, would be spent in Mnquma for the Ngqamakhwe regional bulk water supply, while R13m would go towards the Xhora East water supply.

In addressing emergency interventions at water and sewer systems, and refurbishment of water retaining structures for the entire district, Ndikinda announced a R30m allocation.

In Great Kei, Ndikinda said his district would “make an investment” of R19m for sanitation projects, and more than R12.6m for related infrastructure projects, while in Mbhashe R95m had been set aside, with an additional R86.2m also for infrastructure development.

The Butterworth-based Mnquma municipality, characterised by its water scarcity and drought, will receive more than R400m for sanitation infrastructure upgrades, with more than R53.7m in municipal infrastructure allocation and R62m for wastewater treatment works.

Talking about the state of the district, Ndikinda said the level of inequality was still cause for concern.

“Unemployment and poverty are very high in our black and rural communities.

“Lack of political maturity among politicians hindered development in our communities, for we are forever competing rather than co-operating.”

Ndikinda emphasised the importance of the district’s move to develop and review its employee benefit policies.

This was “drawing huge amounts of money” from their equitable share, and their moves to trim staff was to reduce their heavy salary bill which he said was behind most of the district’s financial woes.