Pretoria - Tshwane Executive Mayor Randall Williams was forced to eat humble pie by apologising for prematurely issuing a media statement endorsing the appointment of a city manager during a council sitting on Thursday night.
Williams was taken to task by the EFF for publicly announcing former Nelson Mandela Bay city manager, Johann Mettler, as Tshwane’s administration head while council was still in session to consider the appointment report.
Williams went public about the appointment after a multi-party coalition supported the passing of the report while the ANC, EFF and the Republican Conference of Tshwane registered their dissenting votes.
However, that council procedure was followed by a recommendation from the EFF calling for the restarting of a recruitment process for the appointment.
Council Speaker, Dr Muruwa Makwarela, had accepted the recommendation and was about to divide the house to vote on it when the ANC chief whip Aaron Maluleka challenged his ruling.
Williams said: “You recorded that the EFF had a dissenting vote and then you correctly recorded that the coalition parties voted in favour because we shouted ‘yes’.”
He questioned Makwarela’s ruling on accepting the EFF’s recommendation, which necessitated the recommendation calling for the post to be re-advertised to be subjected to a vote.
“On what basis are you asking for a new vote? If the EFF were in the majority you can accept their amendment,” Williams said.
Maluleka said: “We are not scared to take decisions but in terms of what you are doing you are incorrect. You disposed of a report. You want to take a recommendation after you have disposed of a report. We want you to be consistent. It must be recorded that we didn’t participate in the three that have been recorded. We have no interest in any of the three (candidates shortlisted for city manager's position) because it is a tainted process.”
Makwarela eventually asked for an adjournment for parties to try to find common ground on the matter.
However, council descended into chaos when it reconvened after the EFF found out that Williams’ spokesperson Sipho Stuurman had issued a media statement stating Mettler was the new city manager.
The party took offence, saying the statement was prematurely released because council was yet to finalise its position on the appointment.
EFF caucus leader Obakeng Ramabodu demanded that Williams must retract the statement and apologise in council.
Late in the evening Stuurman released a retraction statement, saying: “I would like to officially retract an earlier media statement stating that the City of Tshwane Council had appointed a new permanent City Manager. The statement was issued in error by my communications team. Council is still busy with the process of voting on the matter. We apologise for the confusion.”
At the end council resolved to postpone the tabling of a report regarding a city manager’s appointment.
The EFF said the postponement followed “a misguided announcement by the executive mayor, on social media platforms, of a false declaration that a city manager was appointed to head the administration”.
“A competent executive mayor would have known unambiguously that such a process cannot be adequately completed, unless otherwise ratified by a majority of councillors required in a municipal council. However, the executive mayor in his juvenile obsession for publicity prematurely engaged in an exercise of announcing the appointment without a legitimate conclusion of this process,” the party said.
Pretoria News