On Now
Weekdays 15:00 - 18:00
The Joyride Nico, Nikki, Kayla and JayBee
NEXT: 18:00 - 19:00 OFM Business Hour with Olebogeng
Listen Live Streams

Central SA

Appointment of FS Municipal Managers in spotlight

───   KATLEHO MORAPELA 13:48 Thu, 12 Sep 2019

Appointment of FS Municipal Managers in spotlight | News Article

The appointment of Municipal Managers in the Free State has once again come under scrutiny.


This as Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) has requested the municipal council of Mafube to submit resolutions that appointed its Municipal Manager. The request comes after two Free State local municipalities – Masilonyana and Mafube - failed to appear before the committee yesterday where they were expected to account on their financial woes. The committee held a two-day hearing with municipalities that the Auditor-General raised concerns about in his latest report and have either incurred a disclaimer or an adverse audit opinion in the past five consecutive years. Apart from the twelve municipalities from Limpopo, the Northern Cape and the North West, Masilonyana and Mafube were the two from the Free State that were set to be engaged on regarding their financial rut and adverse audit outcomes.

The request over the appointment of Mafube’s Municipal Manager comes amidst persisting questions over that of the Fezile Dabi District Municipality.

This district municipality has in the past two years made headlines and raised questions about the appointment of municipal managers when Lindi Molibeli, who was appointed by the council in 2017, approached the Free State High Court for clarity on her appointment after the former mayor, Oumix Oliphant, allegedly refused to sign her contract or her performance agreement, placing her position into question.

Molibeli’s legal action regarding her appointment was, however, followed by a counter application from Oliphant asking for the appointment to be set aside, stating that the council was non-compliant in the appointment process and that the council did not appoint a panel to preside over the appointment, nor did they submit a written report to the then Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs’ MEC, Oupa Khoabane.

Both cases were dismissed by the High Court in October 2018 on the grounds that the Fezile Dabi District Municipality needed to inform Khoabane of the appointment process and outcome of the preferred applicant as Municipal Manager.

Subsequent to that, Khoabane wrote a letter to the executive mayor of the municipality, Max Moshodi, instructing him to release Molibeli from her position. In his letter dated 19 November 2018, he stated that due processes were not followed in the appointment of Molibeli and that the decision taken by the municipal council regarding her appointment on 30 November 2017, must be overturned.

Molibeli has meanwhile counteracted the decision made by the former MEC and the matter is still sub judice. 


OFM News

@ 2024 OFM - All rights reserved Disclaimer | Privacy Policy | We Use Cookies - OFM is a division of Central Media Group (PTY) LTD.