By ASANDA NINI
Outgoing Buffalo City Metro (BCM) executive mayor Alfred Mtsi, who will relinquish his mayoral chain in August, a mere 13 months after assuming office, has no regrets about accepting a short-term deployment and holds no grudges over his sudden removal.
In fact, Mtsi says, he will accept and go anywhere the ANC wants him to go after the August 3 local government elections.
Speaking exclusively to the Saturday Dispatch yesterday, Mtsi said he was confident the metro would be in good hands when his successor and his current deputy, Xola Pakati, took over. Both Pakati and Mtsi joined the metro in July last year.
The outgoing mayor said they had laid a solid foundation towards the future economic development of the city.
Mtsi, who gave up his Bhisho legislature MPL seat to “rescue” the unstable and infighting-prone BCM, yesterday said he was “proud” of the work he and Pakati had done in bringing back political and administration stability in the metro in the short time they had been in charge.
“I don’t have any regrets. I am here due to deployment by the organisation. In fact all of us are subjected to deployment. It’s not because one likes to be anywhere or not. If the organisation decides to place you somewhere, so let it be,” he said.
The Saturday Dispatch understands that after the August elections, Mtsi is likely to replace former BCM mayor Zukisa Faku as an ANC MP in the National Council of Provinces.
Faku was recently found guilty by the East London Magistrate’s Court of misusing the BCM mayoral credit card while still mayor. Her sentencing is still pending.
Before Mtsi’s tenure, the city was characterised by endless political and administration instability and squabbles, which sometimes crippled the provision of services.
At times council meetings became chaotic and portfolio committee meetings did not sit, while administration, especially the supply chain management unit, was in a shambles.
Mtsi said when he was deployed to BCM there were allegations of political interference in administration.
He said this has since toned down, attributing that to “the work of the collective”.
“Whatever might have been pointed out as an achievement, it should be dedicated to a collective effort, both at a political level as well as in administration. We managed to share a common understanding that no one was above the organisation and municipality.
“I really dedicate such turnaround to the kind of reception and support that we have received.”
Asked about the challenges previously engulfing the metro administration, Mtsi said the challenges had nothing to do with lack of capacity. “It had nothing to do with capacity, but more to do about the manner in which things were done.
“Administration here do have the capacity required to do the work. But if you look at our directorates, the challenge they have is the issue of silo mentality, it has nothing to do with whether they are capable or not,” he said.
He said to turn things around at the notorious supply chain management unit, “where most challenges were systematic”, the metro had tightened oversight structures.
Mtsi said they had adopted an approach to centralise procurement and would soon turn to an electronic procurement system to prevent acts of corruption.
Speaking about the metro’s failure to implement the integrated bus rapid transit system and failure to establish a metro police unit, Mtsi said such programmes were on the cards, but that the metro was hindered by budgetary constraints. — asandan@dispatch.co.za
lVisit www.dispatchlive.co.za for a video interview with executive mayor Alfred Mtsi.