SANDLANE STOPS COUNCILLOR, CEO’S E95 000 SA TRIP

MBABANE – They look to be on a collision course once again. That is none other than the Matsapha Municipal Council trio of Mayor Sandlane Zwane, Chief Executive Officer Lucky Sukati and Councillor Musa Ndzimandze.
Having previously charged and suspended the CEO and Ndzimandze respectively, Zwane has now stopped the duo from embarking on a trip to Cape Town, South Africa, at council’s expense.

Initially, the trip was to involve two more councillors; Mavela Shongwe and Bongani Mkhatjwa, but the delegation list was altered to exclude them.
The trip was to cost E95 397.68 and was supposed to take place last week Friday.

The Times SUNDAY has seen a confidential Council in Committee Paper dated December 2018 that addressed the issue of the trip.
A councillor who spoke to this publication on condition of anonymity said they were concerned when the list was altered, reportedly at the insistence of Minister of Housing and Urban Development Prince Simelane.

FIND amicable solution

A resolution, which was taken by Council on November 19, 2018, reads: “The finance committee comprising of Councillor Musa Ndzimandze, Councillor Mavela Shongwe, Councillor Bongani Mkhatjwa and the Town Clerk should travel to Cape Town within the week ending 22nd  November 2018. The purpose of the meeting was to try and negotiate an amicable solution in the legal action which was alleged by Bytes Systems in their email of the 12th November 2018.”
According to the council paper, Prince Simelane, upon analysis of the situation, issued a directive to the effect that the legal officer, the finance committee chairperson (Ndzimandze) and the Town Clerk (Sukati) should embark on the trip to engage with Bytes Systems.

This directive, as per the council paper, was discussed in a council meeting held on November 30, 2018, where council resolved that the trip should be put on hold until audit firm PricewaterhouseCoopers conducted a thorough IT systems audit.
“Council has written to PwC requesting for the quotation of conducting the IT systems audit and a response has not yet been received,’ reads part of the council paper.

It is stated that the matter was then brought back to council for a final resolution considering that the ministry had already shown concern that the Matsapha Municipal Council was delaying the implementation of the directive.
“On the 07th December 2018, the ministry indicated that in the absence of the legal advisor, council may request through the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development a legal officer from the Attorney General’s office to be part of the team. The council has written a letter to the ministry requesting for assistance in this regard,” further reads the paper.

Council said in its consideration of the directive of the resolution may cut down on the number of personnel in order to reduce costs of the trip.

cost would be reduced

It was indicated by council that in the event the acting treasure or town clerk, the finance chairperson and the legal advisor travelled, the cost would be reduced by E7 400.82 to E87 996.86.
“This is on the basis that the treasurer’s office has firsthand information to support the legal officer from the attorney general’s office who would be getting the matter for the first time,” adds the council paper.
Lungelo Nkambule, the Communication Officer in the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, confirmed having received a proposal from the Matsapha council regarding the trip.

“It was proposed that a team of five make up the delegation but after careful and thorough consideration, the delegation was reduced to the necessary technical team and relevant officers,” she said.
Nkambule nonetheless pointed out that the ministry, as a separate entity with perpetual succession, does not sanction local authority activities for they are a legal persona who can sue and be sued in their own right.
“Exception to this discourse would be where intergovernmental relations direct that the intended course of action by the local authority is subjected to ministerial approval,” she said.

She emphasised that the ministry had not issued any new policy direction stopping local authorities from partaking in local authority business, be it conference, meeting or seminar and other engagements outside the country.

external travel instrument

“The obtaining regulatory instrument on external travel by municipalities is still the governing one,” Nkambule added.    
The councillor who spoke to this publication said they were not convinced that it was the minister who suggested the names of the people to embark on the trip and excluded the other two.
“What we also heard is that they were going to take with them a legal officer from one of the local municipalities instead of engaging one from the attorney general’s office as the ministry presumably recommended,” said the councillor.

The councillor said the issue of the trip became contentious last week when the mayor was excluded from the meeting with the CEO that was supposed to deliberate on the agenda of the next council meeting.
“This is the meeting where the issue of the trip was to be discussed. We suspect the mayor was excluded because they wanted to take him by surprise,” stated the councillor.

However, the mayor is said to have used his powers to move an unopposed motion to have the issue of the trip removed from the agenda.
“You should have seen their faces when the mayor did this, they nearly cried because the trip was no longer going to happen,” said the councillor.

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