Durban — Suspended eThekwini Deputy City Manager Sibusiso Makhanya has named a top ANC and senior member of the City Executive Committee (Exco) as the one behind his suspension.
In his representation to the independent investigator appointed by the City to investigate misconduct allegations against him, Makhanya said the real reason for his suspension was to pave the way for the appointment of a certain official of the City who has long been earmarked for the position of Cleansing Solid Waste (CSW) head.
He said that as a deputy city manager responsible for Trading Services which the CSW unit fell under, he would be responsible for the appointment of that person. He said it was well known within the City that he was questioning the qualifications of this official, making it clear that he would not allow her to be appointed.
Makhanya said he was aware an agreement had been made with the individual by a senior manager of the City.
He said once the individual official was appointed, she would outsource the services of cleaning the City’s central business district areas to a private company owned by a well-known ANC funder.
He said this would enable the “ANC funder” to fund the top exco member’s political ambitions to be elected as the party’s powerful eThekwini regional chairperson in the party’s elective conference next year.
Makhanya said he would be involved in the appointment of the service provider and the cabal against him feared that it would not be able to appoint the service provider of its choice while he remained in his job.
“It is interesting that the position for the Head of CSW was advertised in the Sunday Times, dated 01 September 2024, which might be construed that this suspension is designed to take Makhanya out of the process to appoint the Head of CSW, since I received the letter of the intention to suspend me immediately on my arrival from the water week conference on the 30th of August 2024.
“It is coincidental that (name withheld) within the municipality have engaged the.... (naming the senior manager) and the ...(name withheld) for financial support towards some projects at CSW with an intention to use these for his election campaigning purposes for a position of the regional chairperson in his party.
“The projects in concern are currently being done internally but to fund this programme they are outsourcing it to be done by the companies. It could be that this is one of the reasons to remove me to avoid any interferences.”
He said the tender had already been advertised.
He said the senior Exco member had confirmed in a meeting, held at the Pencil Club in Umhlanga, that he would contest the chairperson position of the ANC in the region, so he needed funding – and outsourcing CSW services to private contractors would help raise money for his campaign.
“I raised my concerns that that was going against the municipal strategy of in-sourcing waste collection services as it was done in Umlazi,” said Makhanya.
In terms of the timelines, the investigator is supposed to hand over the report to the city manager on Wednesday (today), who will then present it to exco within seven days.
Makhanya is challenging his suspension in the South African Bargaining Council because he said exco had not considered his side of the story before endorsing his suspension.
He also denied that he was responsible for the delay in payment to the service provider – which then dragged the City to court – saying that it was not his responsibility to pay contractors.
eThekwini Municipality spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said: “All labour-related matters in the City are discussed in the appropriate forum, not in the court of public opinion.
“Discussing internal employer-employee related matters does not contribute towards assisting the integrity of the process, hence the City does not publicly engage in such matters,” she said.
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