Durban - A handful of eThekwini DA councillors want answers from their executive committee representatives, Zwakele Mncwango and Heinz de Boer, for failing to check on the background and credentials of new deputy city manager Simphiwe Duma.
This was after it emerged that Duma had been axed by his previous employer for serious misconduct.
Provincial party leader Mncwango and De Boer represent the DA in exco. Deputy city manager vacancy interviews are done by exco and De Boer was on the panel that interviewed Duma.
Duma will head the city’s newly formed trading services cluster, which comprises Durban Solid Waste, electricity and the water and sanitation units. The units account for about R22.3 billion of the city’s R39.1bn budget for the 2015/16 financial year.
Several DA councillors have expressed shock that Mncwango, and more particularly De Boer, did not pick up on Duma’s tainted past.
Mncwango later queried Duma’s past after being alerted by a DA councillor during a council meeting on Thursday. This was after Mncwango and De Boer had already approved the appointment in the exco meeting. The DA abstained from approving the appointment after the discrepancy was picked up.
One DA councillor said the two would have some questions to answer in the party’s next caucus meeting.
“They get paid a whole lot of money. How can he (De Boer) miss something like this?” the councillor said.
A second councillor said: “He (De Boer) let us down badly. He was informed at exco about this guy’s background. It was at exco where he should have said: ‘No, we can’t vote for this ’.”
De Boer said he could not give details of the interviews as he was bound by a confidentiality clause.
He was only willing to say: “It is quite clear that the ANC wants this guy… We as the DA sit on the panel and are outnumbered.
“There are seven ANC people and there’s two of us, whether we object and vote against it at full council, or abstain, we are outnumbered. Even if we do say ‘No’, they still put these things through.”
Defending himself, he said: “For the people who say we might have missed it; it really doesn’t matter because if the ANC wants to push it through, they will in any case.”
Mncwango defended the party on Sunday, saying the interview panel did not screen candidates. This was the city manager’s obligation.
“Our job is to look at the CV and ask standard questions,” he said. “The candidate is asked at the end of the interview if there is anything that could hinder him being appointed. The only thing I can do after the interview is to personally do research, but unfortunately I was not there.”
He said it was “wrong for anyone to put the blame on Heinz”.
He also said he would be “fighting the appointment”.
Former exco member Tex Collins said the party would challenge the ANC to the bitter end.
“How can you (the city) employ a man knowing full well that there was a forensic investigation surrounding him? He was fired from his previous job,” he said.
IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi, who was part of the interview panel, admitted that Duma had declared his history but said he would request the minutes of the meeting to establish if Duma had been “honest” in his declaration.
Patrick Pillay of the MF was “shocked” by the DA.
“They have supported the appointment in the morning at exco… What makes it worse is that the deputy mayor says this person disclosed during the interview,” he said.
Paul Hoffman, of the Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa, said: “Those involved in the process of hiring Duma failed to comply with their constitutional duty” and let down ratepayers.
“If it was known to them before the appointment was made, or even after, they ought to make reasonable or accountable steps to put right what has been done wrong.”
The Mercury