Two top-level officials in the Cape Town unicity administration have been axed from their posts by the 10-month-old African Nation Congress/New National Party coalition, which governs the city.
They will receive six months’ salary as a pay-off.
The announcement of the axing — dubbed “disengagement of contracts” — of
executive director for financial services Rodney McKechnie and executive director for strategy and policy Dr Greg Munro was made on Monday by city manager Dr Wallace Mgoqi, who himself replaced former Democratic Alliance appointee Robert Maydon, axed late last year.
The announcement comes at a time when rates arrears have risen from 5% in June 2001 to 9% in June this year.
Both men were brought into the DA administration — which won the 2000 municipal poll in the city but was ousted by the NNP/ANC coalition — during 2002.
Munro, who was in charge of implementing a new computer system, was a former South Peninsula municipality official and McKechnie, a financial troubleshooter, came from the private sector.
Mgoqi said in a statement that a mutual agreement had been reached between the city and the two executive directors.
“One of the biggest challenges facing local government in the City of Cape Town is to bring order to an administration that is the result of the merger of seven former municipalities into one.
“Upon taking over as city manager I made it a priority to work closely with the mayoral committee on a thorough and detailed assessment of our management and staff structures and operations.”
“During this process I also consulted with the members of the current executive management team on a way forward. There was general agreement that it would be advisable to streamline our top management team.”
“This prompted McKechnie and Munro to enter into discussions on disengagement from their contracts. These discussions culminated in the conclusion of a mutual agreement between the city, McKechnie and Munro to disengage from the remaining 32 months of their contracts.”
DA councillor and former deputy mayor Belinda Walker said that any restructuring of top positions — for political reasons — would “delay implementation at a crucial stage when the ANC is wanting to deliver ahead of next year’s national election.”
The parties to the “disengagement” agreement have agreed not to comment on the matter.
Mgoqi said to ensure the continuation of service delivery, finance strategy director Aneel Radhakrishna will be acting head of the finance department and information technology director Nirvesh Sooful will act in the strategy and policy portfolio.
He also said that the city will be making a detailed announcement regarding its new top-management structure within the next two weeks. — I-Net Bridge