A special Amahlathi municipality council meeting on Friday placed under-siege municipal manager Ivy Sikhulu-Nqwena on precautionary suspension after she was accused of several alleged mismanagement transgressions.
Independent investigators have been contracted by the council to spearhead investigations against Sikhulu-Nqwena, with their report on the matter expected to be tabled in council in a month’s time.
While Sikhulu-Nqwena could not be reached for comment on Monday and did not respond to questions sent, her suspension was confirmed by mayor Onke Mgunculu.
“Yes I can confirm the suspension, but will not get into its merits,” he said.
All I can say is that she is facing serious allegations, hence the council decided to place her on precautionary suspension, pending a probe that would be done by independent contracted investigators
"All I can say is that she is facing serious allegations, hence the council decided to place her on precautionary suspension, pending a probe that would be done by independent contracted investigators.
“We opted to place her on precautionary suspension so that she could not interfere with investigations, which will be done and a report presented to council in 30 days’ time.
“We have further resolved to approach the provincial Cogta department so that they can second a seasoned and competent official to come and act as our municipal manager.”
He said the council’s latest move was “a clear indication that we are serious about clean governance and fighting corruption, so we can attract investors to our municipality, which in turn will provide the much-needed job opportunities”.
The Amahlathi council also appointed Mfundo Bukukwana, its director of engineering, to act as administration boss, while they are waiting for Cogta to second someone to the broke and unstable municipality.
The Dispatch reported last month about council moves to place the municipal manager on suspension amid a plethora of allegations levelled by Mgunculu against her.
They included alleged mismanagement and failure to deal with theft of municipal assets such as guns and ammunition, allegations that she had failed to implement council resolutions and to adequately advise council on various issues, and she is also accused of misleading her council bosses, failing to ensure the towns were clean, and inadequate management of electricity losses.
The failure to ensure that the longtime non-functioning of the traffic department in Amahlathi was rectified, and the use of more than R12m paid for legal services, between 2019 and this year, are some of the other charges levelled against her by Mgunculu.
Confidential documents seen by the Dispatch show that on April 29 Mgunculu wrote a five-page letter to Sikhulu-Nqwena requesting detailed reports about a number of issues that affected the financial stability of the ailing municipality.
On May 8, Sikhulu-Nqwena wrote back and provided Mgunculu with a 35-page report addressing all his concerns, a report Mgunculu later told council was insufficient, paving way for this suspension.
The municipality recently approached the high court in a bid to reverse an unaffordable 2017 policy on standardisation of salaries.
In an affidavit submitted with the application, Sikhulu-Nqwena revealed that a number of important council documents had been destroyed in mysterious fires that engulfed and destroyed municipal buildings in the area a few years ago.
She also wrote to council raising a number of allegations against her mayor, whom she accused of allegedly meddling in administration matters.
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