The Lotus Gardens, Atteridgeville and Saulsville Civic Association has disputed the news that City of Tshwane finance MMC Peter Sutton resigned voluntarily.
The association said Sutton was pushed in order for the municipality to dodge accountability to a memorandum of demands it had handed to him last month.
Chairperson Tshepo Mahlangu reaction to Sutton’s sudden resignation followed mayor Cilliers Brink’s announcement of the MMC’s departure last week.
The mayor said Sutton called it quits after he was offered a senior management position in the private sector. He said Sutton would, however, stay on as a DA councillor, but would be released from his MMC duties.
“He agreed to stay on until January 4, 2024 to allow me to appoint a successor,” he said.
Chairperson of the coalition management committee, Jacqui Uys, will take over as MMC for finance.
Mahlangu said: “We don’t buy that story that he resigned and went to join a private company. This is pure politics. You may ridicule me today, but you will thank me one day.”
He said Sutton was strategically shifted after he received the organisation’s memorandum of demands.
“He is the same MMC who deliberately withheld those memorandum so that they may not go to council,” he said.
On November 10, the organisation led residents on a march to Tshwane House to complain about inaccurate billing, fraudulent letters of demands sent to defaulting customers and hiring of consulting firms by the municipality.
Mahlangu said Sutton had loved his work and had attended all the community meetings in Atteridgeville convened by the organisation.
In one of the meetings, residents had also called for the scrapping of inaccurate municipal bills.
Mahlangu said: “He was the MMC who was always in the media, responding to our grievances as the residents of Tshwane. He received the memorandum on behalf of mayor Brink. He promised that they will respond in seven days and they missed the deadline and it is now more than 40 days.
“I don’t fully agree that MMC Sutton voluntarily resigned. He loved his job. He risked his life by attending meetings at the townships. They pushed him to resign.”
In paying tribute to Sutton, Brink said: “He leaves the finance portfolio in the City in a better position than when he found it, and with a new management team in place to drive a culture of performance and accountability.”
Sutton served as the chairperson of the Section 79 oversight committee on finance from 2016 to 2021.
He said the MMC oversaw Tshwane Ya Tima, the aggressive revenue collection campaign targeting customers in arrears and disconnecting their electricity and water services.
“This campaign was a great success and has informed our subsequent plans,” he said.
Pretoria News