Cape Town - The ANC has slammed the DA-led City of Cape Town for a “witch-hunt against black professionals”, following the resignation of two top managers within a month, and has warned that it knows of more officials who are being “forced” to quit.
“There is a reign of terror going on in this administration,” said the ANC’s chief whip, Xolani Sotashe.
Tshidi Mayimele-Hashatse, the executive director of corporate services, resigned at the end of last year for “personal reasons”.
Talk among city officials then was that her position as the chairwoman of Rand Water in Gauteng may have been a concern for the DA.
This was echoed on Monday by Sotashe who claimed the DA had “egg on its face” when it discovered that an official from its administration was speaking for Rand Water after the party had tried to blame the ANC for the water problems in that province.
Sotashe said she had also been prevented from hiring a senior manager to manage employment equity in the city.
He said other senior black officials were being stripped of their powers, and were effectively sitting in their offices with no responsibilities.
“The city is undermining the professionalism of these individuals.”
He referred to the resignation of Seth Maqetuka, executive director of human settlements, also for “very, very personal reasons” as a red flag.
“We do not believe that all of a sudden two executive directors have personal reasons to resign.”
The party said it would refer the matter to the public protector for further investigation.
But mayor Patricia de Lille dismissed the ANC’s allegations, saying only two of the city’s 11 executive directors had left the administration voluntarily.
“The public protector can therefore investigate these resignations with pleasure and conduct interviews about said personal reasons.”
De Lille said that Mayimele-Hashatse had not followed due process when it came to filling the post of a senior manager to handle employment equity.
The post was advertised in October, with a closing date of January 15, 2015, without the position being approved by the mayoral committee.
De Lille said she intervened and Mayimele-Hashatse was instructed to stop interviews until the position had been to the mayoral committee for approval.
She denied that there was any attempt to use this as a form of “constructive dismissal”.
While the ANC has charged the DA with centralising power in the Mayor’s Office to “push out black staff”, De Lille said more than 65 percent of people from the employment equity groups held positions in the three highest management tiers in the city.
Mayimele-Hashatse said she would comment later on the allegations of her resignation, including those reported in previous articles by the Cape Argus.
Cape Argus