Pretoria – Tshwane Mayor Solly Msimanga on Wednesday announced the nomination of Moeketsi Emmanuel Mosola to take over the reins as "permanent city manager".
Mosola's appointment will now have to be affirmed at Tshwane's ordinary council meeting scheduled for Thursday.
"At the last council meeting for 2016, I requested an extension of the appointment of the incumbent acting city manager [Lindiwe Kwele] for the purpose of allowing the panel further time to apply its collective mind diligently ahead of the appointment of a permanent city manager," Msimanga told journalists in Pretoria.
"I am glad to announce that the interview has been concluded and we now have a nominee for the position of city manager. The nominee is someone we strongly believe can fulfill the duties and responsibilities of the position of the city manager and assist in bringing the change to Tshwane which we desire."
Even though Msimanga anticipates strife when the council convenes on Thursday, he said he hoped that the matter of a substantive city manager would be put to bed. Kwele has been in an acting capacity since former city manager Jason Ngoneni resigned when the Democratic Alliance-led administration took over Tshwane following the August local government elections.
"We are confident that council will confirm his [Mosola] nomination and we can continue the work we have already begun, in earnest," said Msimanga.
"I would like to thank Ms Lindiwe Kwele who stepped up to the plate and served as the acting city manager after Jason Ngobeni resigned. For this, we are grateful and will continue to work with her as the deputy city manager, a position for which she served in before acting as the city manager."
Msimanga said Mosola was the chief executive of Imperial Holdings' tourism and passenger transport division – a position he had held since 2009.
"He was the chief executive of South African Tourism from 2004 to 2009, responsible for South African tourism brand development strategy and business plan. He was its [SA Tourism] chief operations officer from 2001 to 2004. While CEO of SA Tourism, Mr Mosola was jointly appointed as acting chief executive of the International Market Council, now know as Brand South Africa," said Msimanga.
He cautioned against the disruption of council activities, which had become become a feature of the Tshwane council last year.
"It is in the best interests of the people of Tshwane that all members, no matter the political party, desist from disrupting Council. As we have shown in the 100 days in office report of December 12 2016, that [disruption] does not deter us from our work to deliver on title deeds, recruiting more metro police officers to make our city safer and to get the city off a contract that makes it extremely difficult to provide sustainable electricity to people and businesses," said Msimanga.
He condemned the spate of "disruptive" ongoing protests across the capital city, pledging to stabilise his new administration which took over after the August 3 2016 municipal elections.
Msimanga also revealed that Tshwane was struggling to keep the flagship Tshwane Wifi project on-line.
"It has received awards and is greatly beneficial but is in desperate need of private-public partnership because the city cannot afford to foot the bill for this wifi. As such, we have begun encouraging the private sector to assist us in this regard in order to make our provision of wifi sustainable and competitive."