President Jacob Zuma wants to stop cadres from holding senior municipal management jobs by amending the Municipal Systems Act, City Press reported on Sunday. The article said amendments to the act were contained in a bill submitted to Parliament by Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Sicelo Shiceka, and would be discussed next week.
The amendments defined - "chairpersons, deputy chairpersons, secretaries, deputy? secretaries or treasurers of the party nationally, or any province, region or other area in which the party operates" - as those who would be excluded from senior management positions. It also banned the employment of top municipal managers who did not have basic skills and forced municipalities to report to Shiceka and the relevant provincial MEC, when city managers were appointed. Stability and professionalism would be created in municipalities by introducing rules that regulated the firing of managers.
Shiceka said the bill was meant to 'depoliticise' and 'professionalise' local government. "At national and provincial level there is no head of department who is an office bearer of a political party...if you want to become a politician, do that".
Zuma faced resistance at next month's national general council (NGC) because local leaders relied on municipal jobs for their income by securing patronage and controlling tenders. The article said African National Congress's (ANC) most influential province Kwazulu Natal, and North West were likely to support the bill. Ekurhuleni ANC secretary Bobo Mokoena fully backed the amendments saying contests in municipalities often filtered through to the party.
Free State and Eastern Cape secretaries were not as optimistic. Free State ANC provincial secretary Sibongile Besani said amendments would go against constitutional rights of ANC members and added it was unfortunate Shiceka had gone to parliament instead of before the NGC.
Eastern Cape regional secretary General Moso said changes were opportunistic and undermined the intelligence of ANC members.
Mpumalanga was divided on the amendments.
The article said the matter would not feature in the ANC's NGC as Zuma and the ANC's national executive committee (NEC) had already set out the changes in January. "The January 8 statement is an NEC statement, the highest decision-making body between conferences and people affected in municipalities favoured the changes".
Shiceka said the amendments were just the beginning and other bills would be introduced to put local government where it belongs.
Source: IoL
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