Minister must prevent flurry of bad municipal appointments
The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Richard Baloyi must take steps to prevent the current scramble to appoint dubious municipal staff before regulations regarding the appointment of Municipal Managers and Section 56 managers take effect in July.
Draft regulations on the appointment of Municipal Managers and Section 56 managers were tabled and discussed in the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs last week (see link).
These regulations seek to give effect to the Local Government Municipal Systems Amendment Act passed by Parliament last year and sets out the requirements in terms of education, experience and skills for the appointment of municipal managers and senior officials.
Importantly it also sets out the categories of misconduct which would prohibit, for specified terms, the employment or reemployment of municipal officials found guilty of financial misconduct, corruption, fraud, dishonesty, discrimination and sexual harassment.
The gap created between the promulgation of the legislation and the finalisation of the regulations is proving problematic.