By Tshwarelo eseng Mogakane
Lassy Chiwayo, the new mayor of Mpumalanga's capital city of Nelspruit, has promised to donate his entire salary package to charity.
Chiwayo said this week that his mandate was service delivery, not self-enrichment.
"I was pulled out of the private sector where I was making a considerable living, but I accepted this position on the sole mandate of bringing stability to the Mbombela council and what it stands for," he said.
He said his annual package of R485 000 would go to selected HIV and Aids charities and youth leadership development organisations or programmes dedicated to helping the historically disadvantaged.
Chiwayo was appointed to bring the Mbombela local municipality back from the brink of collapse.
"I will be frank about the rot that brought the municipality to the brink of total collapse. It was a lack of leadership and lack of true values. We all need to find our moral origins," said Chiwayo.
He blamed political instability and greed within the ANC for the state of affairs at Mbombela.
He said it was for the best when Candith Mashego-Dlamini, the local government and housing MEC, placed the municipality under curatorship on February 20.
Mashego-Dlamini stripped Justice Nsibande, the former executive mayor, and his entire seven-member mayoral committee of their powers in a closed, special sitting of council. The intervention followed a series of tender scandals and allegations of mismanagement that the provincial authorities feared would jeopardise the city's ability to host some of the 2010 Soccer World Cup games.
Mashego-Dlamini said Nsibande and his administrators had repeatedly failed to attend conflict resolution meetings with provincial authorities, and walked out of public workshops where they were asked to commit themselves to working in the public interest.
The provincial government appointed Khayalihle Mpungose, former mayor of the Ugu district municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, as caretaker administrator and gave him until August to put the municipality back on track.
"The municipality is now making great progress since we took over about three months ago. We had to start a process of re-engineering all echelons of the organisation and making sure that all projects were under way," said Mpungose this week.
"The greatest problem is the spending of the municipal budget. It had become the Achilles heel of the municipality, but at the moment we are confident about handing over the budget to the mayor."
Chiwayo said that, as mayor, he would never interfere with the administrative aspects of the municipality but would focus only on winning back "the soul of the ANC leadership within the municipality".
Simphiwe Kunene, the provincial local government and housing spokesperson, said Chiwayo could well be the first mayor in the province to give his salary to charity." I have never heard of anything like this in my life. It is the first I've heard of a mayor not seeking payment," said Kunene.
Gerhard de Bruin, the Democratic Alliance caucus leader in the Mbombela local municipality, welcomed Chiwayo's commitment.
"It's wonderful because it reveals his character as a Christian. The DA will hold him to it," said De Bruin. - African Eye News Service