DURBAN - THE DA in KwaZulu-Natal want uMngeni acting municipal manager Sandile Buthelezi to be charged for misconduct and suspended for failing to execute his duties.
This was after he refused to call a council meeting on Monday so that the new council could be sworn in and get on with its work. In his response to the DA attorney’s letter requesting him to call a meeting on Monday, Buthelezi said he could not because he was appointed by the previous council.
In a media briefing on Wednesday, DA provincial leader Francois Rodgers said although he would not want to dictate to the new mayor Chris Pappas on what to do with Buthelezi’s behaviour, he felt Buthelezi’s conduct emanating from Friday’s botched meeting needed to be investigated and for him to be held accountable.
Buthelezi had called the inaugural council meeting as acting manager on Friday. However, when the suspended manager Thembeka Cibane arrived, he allowed her to take over the meeting. Rodgers said his call was also influenced by Buthelezi’s suggestion that he was not the acting manager.
In a letter, which was an annexure to DA court papers, Buthelezi also wrote to Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC Sipho Hlomuka on Friday asking him to assign an official to preside over the inauguration because he was unable to as he was appointed a month ago by the previous council.
“We are failing to understand Buthelezi’s reasons for not calling the meeting, hence we have filed our papers in the Pietermaritzburg High Court to ask the court to compel him to call a council meeting to elect the new municipality leadership. Once the new council is elected, we want it to investigate his conduct, and act accordingly. It cannot be that Buthelezi was acting manager when he called the meeting on Friday then suddenly he was is no longer the manager. He must tell us when he did cease to be manager,” said Rodgers.
In court papers, the DA also listed the suspended municipal manager as the fourth respondent. The DA wanted the court to order that Cibane not come to the next council sitting.
The DA also want Buthelezi to pay the legal costs from his pocket, if he loses the case. The matter would be heard in court on Thursday after it was accepted as urgent.
Former mayor Richard Sokhela, who appointed Buthelezi, said he was also confused by Buthelezi’s reasons for not calling the meeting, as he was still acting manager. He added that his period of appointment had not lapsed.
DA speaker-elect Janis Holmes said Buthelezi’s explanation was unrealistic because when the new council was inaugurated in 2011, he was the acting manager previously appointed by the outgoing council.
Cogta spokesperson Senzo Mzila confirmed that the department received the correspondence from Buthelezi, but could no longer discuss anything with the media as the matter was now in court.
Daily News