Eastern Cape cooperative governance and traditional affairs MEC Fikile Xasa has given the Port St Johns (PSJ) municipality until the end of today to explain how it will resolve the saga of having two municipal managers.
Xasa, who rubber-stamped the coastal council’s resolution to appoint former cooperative governance official Ngamela Pakade as its head of administration in December while incumbent Ncedile Jakuja was fighting to keep his job through the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration – said yesterday he had been misled by the municipality when he concurred with its resolution to hire Pakade.
Both Pakade and Jakuja reported for duty on Monday after Jakuja took the municipality to the CCMA after he was fired on charges of gross dishonesty and won his case.
Xasa said he wanted answers from Port St Johns municipal bosses on how they would deal with the debacle.
“Before the end of business I will ask for a report with answers on how they let this happen and how they plan to rectify it because having two officials on one post would constitute irregular expenditure.
“The council misled me when it recommended that I approve the appointment because it has not been coming clearly to us that the case was still on.
“Somebody has to answer for this because it cannot impact well on service delivery. It is obvious they cannot have two municipal managers so something must be done,” he said.
PSJ mayor Phikolomzi Langa, who told the Daily Dispatch on Monday that council had resolved to appeal the CCMA ruling, could not be reached for comment at the time of writing.
Langa had previously written to Jakuja asking that he not report for duty until the appeal process has been finalised.
However, Jakuja said anything contrary to the CCMA ruling would be communicated to him by his lawyers.
Langa said on Monday he would convene an urgent executive meeting to deal with the matter.
Jakuja and Pakade could also not be reached yesterday while Feziwe Mshiwa, a personal assistant at the municipal manager’s office said the “MM” was in East London.
She refused to say who the MM was.
MEC demands PSJ answer on municipal managers
Xasa, who rubber-stamped the coastal council’s resolution to appoint former cooperative governance official Ngamela Pakade as its head of administration in December while incumbent Ncedile Jakuja was fighting to keep his job through the Council for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration – said yesterday he had been misled by the municipality when he concurred with its resolution to hire Pakade.
Both Pakade and Jakuja reported for duty on Monday after Jakuja took the municipality to the CCMA after he was fired on charges of gross dishonesty and won his case.
Xasa said he wanted answers from Port St Johns municipal bosses on how they would deal with the debacle.
“Before the end of business I will ask for a report with answers on how they let this happen and how they plan to rectify it because having two officials on one post would constitute irregular expenditure.
“The council misled me when it recommended that I approve the appointment because it has not been coming clearly to us that the case was still on.
“Somebody has to answer for this because it cannot impact well on service delivery. It is obvious they cannot have two municipal managers so something must be done,” he said.
PSJ mayor Phikolomzi Langa, who told the Daily Dispatch on Monday that council had resolved to appeal the CCMA ruling, could not be reached for comment at the time of writing.
Langa had previously written to Jakuja asking that he not report for duty until the appeal process has been finalised.
However, Jakuja said anything contrary to the CCMA ruling would be communicated to him by his lawyers.
Langa said on Monday he would convene an urgent executive meeting to deal with the matter.
Jakuja and Pakade could also not be reached yesterday while Feziwe Mshiwa, a personal assistant at the municipal manager’s office said the “MM” was in East London.
She refused to say who the MM was.
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