Hot on the heels of this letter to the Editor – Orchestrated political crises in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality – came a set of documents from a ‘Concerned member of the ANC’.
The documents show that the Executive Mayor, Zanoxolo Wayile, convened a panel to advise him in line with the recruitment of a new Municipal Manager to replace the Acting Municipal Manager, Elias Ntoba. This panel consisted of 4 internal and 4 external panelists under the chairmanship of Deputy Mayor, Nancy Sihlwayi.
Eight potential candidates were interviewed on 15 July 2011 and, as stated in the leaked report; “.. the panel unanimously agreed on the following names listed in order of priority: Dr SW Vatala, Ms N Baart, Mr T Ndlovu and Mr MS Mbambisa”
The report goes on to state; “…. the panel recommends that Dr Vatala be appointed as Municipal Manager.”
Chairman of the selection panel, Deputy Mayor, Nancy Sihlwayi refused to sign the report.
On 2 September the Executive Mayor, Zanoxolo Wayile, presented to Council the long awaited appointment of a Municipal Manager.
In his report to council the Mayor identified the people who had made up the selection panel as; Councillor Nancy Sihlwayi, Councillor Nomamerica Magopeni, Councillor Balu Naran, Councillor Thando Ngcolomba, Mr Stan Khanyile, Mr Pepi Silinga, Mr Sivuyile Ntlabezo, Mr Rio Nolutshungu, Mr Gerald Fundani and Mr Chris Hay. Both Hay and Fundani were Union Observers not responsible for scoring of candidates.
The Executive Mayor also stated that; “The panel recommended four candidates for appointments in no particular order” – contrary to the leaked documents.
With reference to the ‘Evaluation in Terms of Selection Criteria’, the mayor went on to say; “When overall evaluation performance was considered, Mr T. Ndlovu scores highest, followed by Mr Mbambisa and Dr Vatala in 3rd position” – once again contrary to the leaked documents.
We all know that Dr Vatala is challenging the appointment of Mr Ndlovu in court and if the leaked documents are to believed, which the sender of them assures me is the case, then I would think that the Mayor has some serious questions to answer.
Muddying the waters somewhat is the news that the Acting Municipal Manager, Elias Ntoba, received his summary marching orders on Friday morning for failing to; “…report to the Executive Mayor’s office today (20 October) at 14:00 for the purposes of among others providing a hand-over report to the seconded Acting Municipal Manager, Mr Themba Hani.” Ntoba was also instructed to return his cellphone, 3G data card, Laptop, data projector and Budget Car rental vehicle by no later than 14:00 on Friday 21 October. Furthermore he was instructed to vacate his accommodation by 11:00 on Friday 21 October 2011.
Good news, though for Ntoba was that the Municipality promised to “honour its contractual obligation regarding your return flight ticket and reasonable assistance will be made to book your ticket within a reasonable period of time.”
What Ntoba was NOT informed about was the recall by the Municipality of funds to be paid to him on 25 October in the amount of R64 564.76.
In the interim our Acting ‘out on a limb’ Municipal Manager will be experiencing, for a limited time, free accommodation at the behest of the Guest House that he has been staying in and has undertaken to pay the vehicle rental.
Chatting to the person who leaked the documents and refused to be identified, one gets the feeling that the ANC is fracturing along traditional and trade union lines as each ‘group’ works hard at ensuring that their chosen cadres are deployed in certain regions.
Much has been written about this uneasy and yet highly effective alliance, but, they should soon realise that this continuous tussle is having a highly negative effect on service delivery and the confidence of the country in the ruling party.
The ‘Concerned member of the ANC’ is confident that this ‘problem’ will be sorted out by close of business on Monday.
Confirming that the position of Executive Mayor is a deployed one answerable to the Regional Structures the ‘Concerned member of the ANC’ said; “No-one is born a Mayor” but agreed with me that the Mayor did start out with great promise, as I have said many times in the past. If only his handlers had had the initial confidence to allow him to become the strong unifying leader that we all hoped for!
Alan Straton
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