Durban - Besieged eThekwini health head Nomkhosi Gxagxisa has been severely reprimanded for refusing to sign a critical document at the behest of her superior, compromising the city financially.
Her act of “defiance” saw a city clinic being booted out of rented premises after its lease had expired.
A city report reveals that the reason for her actions was that she was unimpressed when a city colleague referred to her as “Mrs Gxagxisa” instead of “Dr Gxagxisa” in an e-mail relating to the matter.
Senior city councillors, including mayor James Nxumalo and his deputy Nomvuzo Shabalala, are less than impressed, and have demanded that she explain her actions. Opposition parties were more forthright in their criticism, demanding she be investigated and disciplined.
The drama began about a year ago when the city’s real estate unit, in a communiqué to Gxagxisa, indicated that the city had to renegotiate lease agreements for four clinics. The clinics are in Sea Cow Lake, Seaview, Clairwood and Bester (Ntuzuma). The leases expired between 2006 and October last year.
In the correspondence, according to a report before the executive committee yesterday, the real estate department indicated that they needed authority to negotiate terms and conditions of the lease and “sign documents to conclude the lease”.
Gxagxisa did not attend to the request and the real estate department could not proceed. The leases for the clinics expired.
The four clinics operate from premises owned by religious organisations and an NGO. One is run from land owned by a trust.
Frustrated by the situation, Gxagxisa’s deputies, Rosemary van Heerden and a “Z Buthelezi”, wrote to city leaders, begging for intervention. In the letter, they said, “although Gxagxisa was aware of the situation, she chose to rather attack the official from real estate for referring to her as Mrs Gxagxisa’ and not Dr Gxagxisa’”.
This, they wrote, triggered an exchange of nasty e-mails between Gxagxisa and the real estate official.
“The core (expired lease agreements) was left unattended,” the letter reads.
Gxagxisa, they said, “refused to lend any support to (them) despite submissions and requests made to her, to guide the process and support the section 36 reports prepared by both deputy heads”.
Seemingly further agitated, Gxagxisa “refused to sign or be engaged in any aspect relating to section 36 reports, which has resulted in outstanding payments increasing and placing the municipality in an unfavourable light”.
She then instructed that the deputies meet with real estate, the legal department and the supply chain management unit to find a solution.
At this stage, her boss, Musa Gumede, the deputy city manager for community and emergency services, intervened. “He advised that Gxagxisa, real estate and (us) meet,” the documents reads.
The meeting took place, but minus Gxagxisa, who assigned her other deputy, Ayo Olowolagba, to attend on her behalf. The meeting recommended that a Section 36 resolution be taken, but this was again squashed by Gxagxisa.
“She indicated that she wants nothing to do with that section 36 report,” the report further reads. Her actions have apparently resulted in the landlord of the Seaview clinic property locking the building’s doors. Services are now being offered from a verge.
Despite complaints from the community and a councillors, Gxagxisa refuses to budge. Because rent was not being paid, the city was now accumulating irregular expenditure, which was mounting.
The two say they had “done all in their power to avert this situation”.
DA provincial and eThekwini caucus leader Zwakele Mncwango said a summary of Gumede’s comments suggested that officials in the department did not know what they were doing.
“They should engage seniors if they are not sure. That is why you have someone you report to,” he said.
He said Gxagxisa “must account” for her actions. “This executive committee should take a decision, to make her account,” he said.
His DA colleague, Heinz de Boer said the report was “long overdue”, in light of a series of scandals that Gxagxisa had survived over the years. He said the clinic leases was one of the instances where the use of Section 36 was justified.
IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi asked why Gxagxisa had not signed the report before exco, describing her action as brazen “defiance”.
Attempts to reach Gxagxisa for comment yesterday were unsuccessful.
Official's track record
In 2010, Gxagxisa was accused of nepotism after her son, Nceba, was hired as a clerk in the health department. Nceba was later fired and Gxagxisa was found guilty of nepotism in a disciplinary hearing in 2013.
Her medical qualification, obtained in Ukraine, was called into question in 2011 and she was fined R50 000 in 2013 for not being registered with the HPCSA.
Last year councillors in the community and emergency services committee demanded that she show them respect, accusing her of not attending meetings.
The Mercury