Pretoria - The fate of Tshwane acting city manager Mmaseabata Mutlaneng hangs in the balance.
Council last week resolved to seek legal advice regarding the contract allowing her to remain in charge until a permanent city manager had been appointed.
Mutlaneng was installed after her predecessor Mavela Dlamini resigned in July.
Council had initially planned to end her contract with immediate effect and appoint a new acting city manager during last Friday’s sitting at Tshwane House.
The appointee would have been given a three-month contract in line with the norms and standards previously adopted by the municipality with respect to the position of an acting city manager.
However, the item for appointment was abruptly withdrawn from the council agenda following advice that it would be unwise to deal with a legal matter in a political arena.
The position for a permanent municipal manager had been vacant since the departure of Dr Moeketsi Mosola in July last year.
Executive Mayor Randall Williams said Mutlaneng’s contract was signed by former head administrator Mpho Nawa.
The contract, he said, stated that she would be an acting city manager until a permanent candidate was appointed.
“We will have to take that for legal scrutiny and until I take legal advice on the matter I can’t answer the question (regarding when she is likely to exit office). And that is why we precisely withdrew an item to appoint an acting city manager from the council meeting because you can’t resolve a legal dispute in a council meeting,” Williams said.
Prior to the resignation of former mayor Stevens Mokgalapa in February, the City was on course to appoint a new head.
After the administrators assumed office in March, Nawa wanted to restart the appointment process, but it was halted after one of the candidates lodged a legal dispute at the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria.
The aggrieved candidate, Aubrey Masha, was among the candidates who responded to the initial job advertisement last year before the council’s dissolution.
He believed he was the favourite to get the lucrative job.
Masha took the City to court after recruitment was restarted by the team of administrators appointed in March to take charge of municipal affairs.
Nawa had initially said the appointment was likely to be finalised on August 1, but he backtracked on his word following the legal challenge.
At the time, he said: “We didn’t withdraw the decision. We put it on hold. Remember that the Constitutional Court case is in September. We thought that we might not have to spend money on lawyers every week.”
Williams said: “I will have to look at where the appointment process was. Remember there was a process that was started by former mayor Stevens Mokgalapa and the other process started by the administrator. I have no idea where the processes are. So I need to get all those documents and see what is going on.
“And in between there was one of the candidates who was nominated under Stevens Mokgalapa and he went to court and got an interdict to stop the administrator from appointing a permanent city manager.”
Pretoria News