Axed Cape Town city manager Wallace Mgoqi wants the city to pay for his legal battle to retain his job, the Cape Argus reported on Tuesday.
Its website quoted Mgoqi as saying he had to obtain legal representation after he was served with a letter stating two legal opinions had concluded his contract was invalid.
At the last count, his legal bills amounted to more than R60 000 Mgoqi told the newspaper in an interview.
”I’m now entitled to those legal costs I’ve already paid. Why is it that I, as an employee, duly employed by a competent authority at the time, should now bear the costs of a challenge by a subsequent authority for that same decision?”
Mgoqi said chief state law adviser Enver Daniels concurred with him on this in a letter he received last week.
”Mr Daniels agreed with the opinion I should not be liable for my legal costs and said I should apply to the municipality to cover my legal costs.”
Interviewed in the Civic Centre office he is refusing to vacate, Mgoqi said legal action would not have been necessary had he been treated with respect. An attorney and former chief land claims commissioner, he said the situation could have been speedily resolved.
Had mayor Helen Zille invited him for a talk to explain that she could not work with him in the current political environment in the council, he would have responded positively.
”And surely I would have said ‘If that is your view, I will not go against it. Let’s find a way of severing this relationship’,” said Mgoqi. ”I am sure we would have then done that over a period of 48 hours at most. We would have parted ways [with] no ill feeling, no time wasted and no money wasted.”
Zille said she had made every attempt to treat Mgoqi with the utmost respect, and sent him a ”very polite letter” asking him to respond.
”I could have thrown lots of money at this situation to make it go away, but there is a principle at stake and I am not prepared to do that.”
Mgoqi said his case was different from that of previously dislodged city managers because he had been treated in an ”ugly manner”.
”As a black person who has been a victim of oppression, I attribute this to the fact that I am a black person, handled by a predominantly white party,” said Mgoqi.
Zille said she had no immediate plans to evict Mgoqi from his office.
”I am certainly not spending time worrying about Dr Mgoqi’s comings and goings. [Acting City Manager] Achmat Ebrahim has the full support of council staff and we have achieved stability,” she said. — Sapa