Cape Town’s city manager, Wallace Mgoqi, has been asked by the Democratic Alliance-led administration not to come to work until question marks over his contract have been resolved, mayoral spokesperson Robert Macdonald said on Friday.
He said the move followed legal opinion that the renewal of Mgoqi’s contract for another year on the eve of the March 1 local government elections had been irregular.
The contract was renewed by then mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo, whose African National Congress lost the city to an alliance of the DA and smaller parties.
”The city has sent Dr Mgoqi a lawyer’s letter indicating that the renewal of his contract was not done in a lawful manner, and therefore that his contract is in that legal opinion null and void,” Macdonald said. ”Obviously it’s up to Dr Mgoqi to decide if he wants to contest that.”
Though Zille has in the past complained that Mgoqi, supposedly a neutral official, in fact campaigned for the ANC in the polls, Macdonald said the reason the contract had been called into question was a ”strictly legal one”.
Zille is sticking by her commitment not to carry out political purges or revenge firings of staff, he said.
He said that when the mayoral committee had been in recess, as it was when Mgoqi’s contract was renewed, the mayor had delegated authority to take decisions in conjunction with the city manager on matters of emergency.
This was the authority under which Mfeketo claimed to have renewed Mgoqi’s contract for a year, just before the local government elections.
However, it came to the attention of the new mayoral committee this week that records show that Mfeketo and Mgoqi, using this authority, decided to amend the delegation ”on a one-off basis” to allow Mfeketo alone to reappoint Mgoqi.
This would ostensibly remove any question of a conflict of interest on Mgoqi’s part.
”That’s not legally sound: that’s the opinion that we got,” Macdonald said. ”It’s just irregular. We’ve been advised by senior counsel it won’t stand up.”
He said while there would be no objection, pending a resolution of the matter, to Mgoqi physically going to his office, the administration did not want him to act in the capacity of city manager. ”We trust he won’t,” he said.
If his contract was indeed irregular, it would compromise the legality of any contracts he now signed on behalf of the city.
He said if Mgoqi was able to get legal opinion that he was entitled to stay on, ”then we’ll have to negotiate what can be done”.
Mgoqi’s staff said on Friday morning he was in the office, but not immediately available for comment. — Sapa