ActionSA Votes in Tshwane Council on the Merits of MM and CFO Cases; DA Absentees Cost the City

Today, the Tshwane Council deliberated upon in-committee reports pertaining to two disciplinary cases relating to the senior managers, the Group Chief Financial Officer, Gareth Mnisi, and the Municipal Manager, Johann Mettler.

Given that these were matters of public importance to the residents of Tshwane, the following is laid out as ActionSA’s voting record in the meeting: 

In respect of Gareth Mnisi, the Council considered a report to determine whether the allegations against him are minor or serious misconduct in terms of the regulations governing the discipline of senior managers. Allegations deemed minor in nature would result in the effected official returning to work with a warning, whereas allegations being deemed serious would prescribe a formal disciplinary process to be followed to determine the appropriate sanction.

As it relates to the considerations pertaining to the CFO, ActionSA voted for the allegations to be classified as serious such that the CFO would remain on suspension while facing a formal disciplinary process. 

In respect of the case pertaining to the Municipal Manager, the Council considered the case to suspend Mettler based on his representations solicited since the previous meeting of Council. ActionSA considered these representations, against the allegations, and resolved that ActionSA councillors would vote against a suspension. 

This decision was grounded in the reason that a suspension cannot be warranted against allegations that are dated and have already been investigated by bodies like the Auditor-General (A-G), Public Protector and the Courts such that there is not a reasonable risk of the ongoing investigation or witnesses being interfered with. It is worth noting that the  independent investigation into the allegations against the Municipal Manager continues arising from the decision of the prior council meeting.

ActionSA has spent considerable time engaging our coalition partners on these, admittedly, complex matters and conveying our reasoning. To the extent that ActionSA’s voting in Council today deviated from our coalition partners, we accept the reality that being coalition partners does not mean parties must agree of everything or lose their own need to consider matters independently.  

ActionSA is clear that we are not the go-along to get-along party. ActionSA is exceptionally proud of the work of its Mayor, Dr Nasiphi Moya, in turning around our broken capital city, along with our coalition partners, but we will not govern at all costs.  

Of surprise was the failure of the opposition to attend this council meeting in sufficient numbers. The DA in particular were 15 councillors short of their full quota, the consequence of which is that there were not sufficient numbers to prevent Mnisi’s return to run the finances of the city or stop the suspension of the municipal manager. 

This is inconceivable given that the DA has devoted considerable time to campaigning on these matters but could not care sufficiently to attend council and actually vote on them. Cilliers Brink and the DA have spent the past two weeks alleging sinister motives behind these reports, and yet their absence has generated the very outcomes that could have been prevented.  

ActionSA asserts that the discipline of senior managers is consequential to the stability, delivery and governance of a municipality. When wrong doing is found, we will be the first to act, as we have demonstrated in the past. However, when such actions are not warranted, it would harm the turnaround of the city to visit instability upon its senior administration. 

ActionSA Athol Trollip: Former DA heavyweight, now a key ActionSA leader in the Eastern Cape.