THE appointment of Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality Municipal Manager, Nokuthula Mgijima, is yet to be endorsed – more than two months after assuming office.
The appointment must still be endorsed by MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Xolile Nqatha.
However, the municipality claims that there is no outstanding correspondence.
According to Nqatha’s spokesperson, Makhaya Komisa, the delay is due to outstanding information to be supplied by the local municipality.
Komisa said that he cannot divulge the kind of information that is outstanding, as it is a matter between the municipality and Mgijima.
Mgijima assumed office at the beginning of September 2019, after the municipality got itself out of administration.
“There is no correspondence between the municipality and CoGTA on the concurrence, and there is no requirement of that on this matter,” said the Office of the Mayor’s spokesperson, Butsha Lali.
Lali did not want to divulge details on whether this was a new legislation or if it was just a decision by the municipality.
In the past, appointments of municipal managers that were never endorsed by CoGTA, have been challenged in court and subsequently rescinded.
At this point, it is unclear whether the municipal manager has all the rights to execute the duties of an accounting officer without being endorsed by the department that practises an oversight role on municipalities.
