First blood to Tinta in battle for development agency top job

It’s round one to Akhona Tinta, CEO of Amathole district municipality’s development agency, Aspire, in her fight with the municipality.

The East London high court has granted her an interim interdict preventing the appointment of a person to act in her position.

Tinta took the municipality to court after the council decided to appoint Xolani Nondwangu as acting CEO of the agency after new municipal leadership took over.

This was just a day after the agency announced Tinta as its permanent CEO, against the wishes of mayor Anele Ntsangani.

Tinta was acting CEO, having been seconded from the municipality where she was director for strategic planning and management, when she was appointed by the agency permanently in October.

Nondwangu took over on November 1, causing confusion as Nondwangu had the blessing of the ADM council while Tinta was officially hired by the Aspire board.

In a council meeting in October, Ntsangani told fellow councillors the Aspire board had appointed a new CEO without consulting the council.

This was despite his having told the former board chair, Chris Adendorf, to meet him before an appointment was made.

This did not happen.

At the same council meeting, Ntsangani was given the green light to start the process of firing the former board, mainly over the decision to permanently hire Tinta.

Tinta’s court victory means she will be at the helm of the agency until at least December 30, when the matter goes back to court.

On Wednesday, she told the Dispatch: “As the duly appointed CEO, I have been and still am executing my duties at Aspire.

“Together with the management I am working on initiatives to change the lives of the people of Amathole.

“My main focus now is to ensure that the agency delivers on its mandate for the benefit of the Amathole citizenry.”

The interdict means any moves by the new political leadership to execute change at the agency are stalled.

Ntsangani said despite the interdict, the municipality felt it had a strong case and would argue it on the court return date.

He linked the court case to the old board.

“I view this as a well-calculated move by the previous board to plunge the parent municipality into a crisis.”

Ntsangani said the municipality had told the agency to place a moratorium on filling the CEO’S position until it was in a stable financial position, or to lower the CEO’S salary because the agency could not afford the post.

Ntsangani said of the R10m funding it gave to the agency annually, R1.5m went to the CEO’S salary.

“This entity is wholly dependent on the municipality ... it doesn’t have any other source of income.

“So if out of that R10m you give R1.5m to one individual, you are left with R 8.5m. How will you sustain the agency, because there are other employees?”