Siyathemba local municipality in the Northern Cape.
Two senior managers in the Siyathemba local municipality in Prieska in Northern Cape have been implicated in an investigation, which found that their appointments were irregular as they did not have the relevant qualifications.
The investigation into their appointments was initiated last year by the council, which comprises five ANC members, two from the Democratic Alliance and four members from the Siyathemba Community Movement.
The main findings of the inquiry were that chief financial officer Howard Meiring was appointed to the position in 2015 without the relevant qualifications, while Jakob Basson was given the post of director of technical services in the same year in what was described as an “invalid, unlawful and unconstitutional” appointment.
Senior managers have to be appointed by the council, and not municipal managers, a member of the current council told the Mail & Guardian, on condition of anonymity.
“With the post of the technical manager — the post was not advertised. There was no interview. There was nothing.
“The municipal manager just decided to appoint him permanently in the municipality without any process … and he did not even have the qualification for the post,” the member said.
The chief financial officer job was advertised and, when Meiring applied for it, due process was followed in terms of interviews and a competency test, but he was appointed to the position without the right qualifications, the member said, adding: “As the new council that came in, we decided, no, let’s investigate how these appointments came about.”
Meiring confirmed to the M&G that the post was advertised three times and he had decided to apply on the third time, despite being aware that he did not qualify.
“I knew I did not have the correct qualifications, that’s the one thing, or the completed qualifications …
“I submitted my CV, but it’s indicated that my municipal finance management programme is not complete,” he said.
He refuted some of the findings of the investigation about the conditions of his appointment, including the timelines and the nature of it.
He also claimed the investigation was initiated by members of the former council to discredit him and threaten him after he questioned alleged financial discrepancies and misconduct in the council’s operations last year.
“I just know that the council made themselves guilty when they proceeded with this investigation into my appointment,” he said.
Meiring also claimed that the report was biased against him.
Basson referred the M&G’s questions to the municipality for an official response.
The current municipal manager, Thomas Van Staden, who was appointed in October last year, resolved that the recommendations in the report should be implemented by the council.
However, because of financial constraints within the administration, it had to seek support from the MEC for cooperative governance, human settlements and traditional affairs, before it could be dealt with in court.
The submission to the special council on the investigation report indicates that as per a council resolution last June, the municipality council instructed the-then acting accounting officer to conduct an investigation into the appointment and occupation of Meiring and Basson in the indicated positions.
But after attorneys had conducted the investigation and presented the findings to the municipal council, the council did not resolve the matter, the report said.
“Once I was certain of the matter, I went back to a special council meeting, and the council meeting resolved that one, given the recommendations from the law firm, that the matter be referred to the courts, because they say a council cannot review their own decision,” Van Staden told the M&G.
“We then decided that, instead of exhausting the budget of the municipality, let’s refer the matter and request the MEC for cooperative governance in the province to assist the municipality to refer the matter via the state attorney to the court, so that we limit our expenditure on legal fees.
“We view this matter as very important. We want to resolve it as soon as possible, but we also don’t want to put ourselves in a financial fix, because now we are just in court.”
Van Staden said there had been challenges in coming to a decision in the “hung” council in Siyathemba.
He said the two senior managers were pursuing professional qualifications and their removal from their posts would be detrimental to the municipality at this point.
“We are thin on capacity,” Van Staden said. “If I had a deputy technical manager who is qualified and able to take over that role, I would have done that today, but you also need to juxtapose service delivery compared to what you must do now.
“If I now remove him abruptly, today, tomorrow, and then I tell him there is a water problem, he will say to me that it is not his problem and now I sit with the community without water.”
Van Staden insisted that the “matter is not dead” and is being dealt with by the MEC, adding: “It is going to court and an outcome will determine what the penalty would be.”