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Battle over the appointment of Bojanala Municipal manager

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Opposition parties at the Bojanala District Municipality in Rustenburg in the North West are calling for a review of the appointment of the new Municipal Manager.

The council members consisting of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), Democratic Alliance (DA) and Freedom Front Plus claim that the manager must present to the council relevant qualifications before he can be allowed to head the biggest district municipality in the province.

Members of the EFF chanted and sang after storming out of an urgent sitting council convened in the late hours of Friday night. DA and Forum for Service Delivery did not pitch up for that council saying the notice for the meeting was unprocedural.

At the top of the list of concerns are the qualifications of the newly Municipal Manager of Bojanala District Municipality.

The DA, EFF, Forum for Service Delivery is demanding from the ruling ANC leaders to put before council the required documents. However, the ANC was not available to respond to such a request.

The EFF jointly with DA and Forum for Service Delivery say they are taking the matter to court.

EFF leader in the municipality Thulani Makhanya and DA caucus leader in the Municipality Martin Coetzee explains, “We have written documents to all ministries, Cooperate governance and Traditional Affairs. We wrote to the MEC, we wrote to those responsible for governance in the North West, we wrote to treasury, we also wrote the auditor general. So we are waiting for them, failure to do that we will be taking the matter to court, because the EFF came into this municipality and inherited a municipality of a disclaimer,” says Makhanya.

Coetzee of the DA says, “I think for the first time in history the ruling party walked out of the council without telling us the way forward. We are going to ask for a court order for ruling party to produce the documents for us.”

To add salt to injury, the opposition is against the manner in which the speaker of the council convened the urgent sitting on Thursday night.

Forum for Service Delivery chief whip Fistus Mnisi says the notice contravened the rules.

“In terms of the rules of the law committee if you adjourn the meeting, it has to be adjourned as if it is another general meeting, of which all the parties should be given a seven day notice that is why we did not attend that meeting, because it was against the rules of order.”

Meanwhile, the Municipal leaders were not available for comment after denying the SABC accesses to the so called special council sitting.

However, the North West Department of Local Government says it is not aware of the situation.

Departmental spokesperson Ben Bole says, “From the Municipality or from the opposition parties in as far as the qualifications of the Municipal manager is concerned, and therefore at the time when we receive such complaints or such issues as the department we commit to deal with the matter decisively and provide the necessary leadership on the matter.”

The opposition is adamant that they will not allow the newly appointed Municipal Manager to be in office without his CV.

 

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