The City of Johannesburg has parted ways with its accounting officer, Ndivhoniswani Lukhwareni, over issues of service delivery, mayor Geoff Makhubo said Tuesday.
In an interview Makhubo said they had decided to go into “mutual separation” at the end of February.
Makhubo said the “separation” was preceded by an engagement with Lukhwareni over the city executive's unhappiness with the level of service delivery.
There has been increasing unhappiness from the city's residents and from its political leadership about the state of service delivery in the city. As municipal manager, he was responsible from the side of the city's administration, to ensure that service delivery took place and improved.
“We agreed we must part ways as to give the city an opportunity to relook at the way we offer services to our residents,” Makhubo said.
Lukhwareni’s departure from the city’s administration comes after he took special leave early in February, on the same day that a special council meeting was set to take place to discuss “disciplining a senior official”.
The meeting was, however, cancelled, which allowed for more discussions between Lukhwareni and Makhubo.
Lukhwareni was appointed in October 2016 and his term was set to expire in a few months. He was appointed as city manager by the DA-led coalition, which took over the running of the city following the 2016 local government elections.
The city is now being governed by an ANC-led coalition government, which was elected in council after the mayoral position became vacant following former mayor Herman Mashaba’s resignation from office late in 2019.
Upping the state of service delivery in the metro has been an issue for years, but it is particularly important in 2021 as a local government election looms.
Lukhwareni was approached for comment, but did not respond by the time of publication.
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