Two of former Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga’s senior staff have been dismissed.
New mayor Stevens Mokgalapa told Rekord on Monday that Samkelo Mgobozi, a spokesperson, and Stefan de Villiers, an executive head had been fired following an investigation into irregular appointments in the mayoral office.
Last year, media reports revealed that the metro chief of staff Marietha Aucamp, De Villiers and Mgobozi had not met the basic requirements for appointment to the positions they held making their appointments irregular.
This had prompted the metro to start an audit of all senior managers’ appointments.
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Mokgalapa said he respected the culmination of the audit as “I cannot sit with irregular appointments in my office”.
Mgobozi and De Villiers earned upwards of R1 million annually each.
Mokgalapa said he, the city’s communication team and executive head would finalise who would fill Mgobozi’s vacancy in an acting capacity ahead of the appointment of a permanent spokesperson.
Msimanga had previously called the audit a witch hunt by city manager Moeketsi Mosola intended to purge his staff.
Mosola had written to Mgobozi to ask him to give him reasons why he should not be terminated as the executive head of mayoral public affairs and media relations.
The position, advertised on 2 October 2016, required a minimum of 12 years’ experience of which at least five had to be at senior management level.
“At the time of appointment, you had two years and eight months overall experience, of which two years and five months was a senior management level,” Mosola had written adding he had found no evidence that a waiver of those requirements had been approved.
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The audit found that De Villiers only had a personal trainer qualification.
Mokgalapa said he had promised to sweep clean all the issues plaguing the city that when he got into office and was keeping his word.
Article by: Liam Ngobeni Journalist
