Nzama plans to take council to court

INLSA

Eugene Nzama

eThekwini municipality’s head of metro police Eugene Nzama is preparing to take the municipality to court to demand that his compulsory leave be terminated with immediate effect.

Nzama was placed on three months’ special leave earlier this month when the municipality announced it would be investigating various allegations of maladministration against him.

The city’s head of disaster management, Vincent Ngu-bane, was appointed to act in the position while Nzama was off work.

Last week, Nzama’s lawyer, Zane Haneef, wrote a letter to the municipality threatening to take the matter to the high court if Nzama’s leave was not terminated.

The lawyer would now prepare to take the matter to court, as the municipality had failed to respond to Nzama’s demand by Wednesday last week, which was the deadline. Haneef said he had yet to determine the exact day he would file court papers. He said he would know before the end of today.

The lawyer said Nzama never agreed to take the leave, but that it was imposed on him.

“Our further instructions are that, absent such an agreement, you neither possess the authority nor are you unilaterally empowered in law to place our client on special leave, more especially on the basis that you allege in your letter,” read the lawyer’s letter to the municipality.

Haneef said Nzama viewed the special leave as a suspension, which was illegal and a breach of the Disciplinary Procedures and Code Collective Agreement.

Reinstate

“We hereby call upon you to immediately reinstate our client with immediate effect, failing which our instructions are to launch an urgent high court application for the necessary relief,” he added.

A municipal spokesman, Thabo Mofokeng, acknowledged that the municipality had received the letter.

“We are dealing with the matter, although I will not give details, since it has been handed to our legal team.

“We stand by our statement that Nzama had agreed to take the special leave,” said Mofokeng.