The Johannesburg city council is expected to consider a report aimed at making city manager Tshepo Makola’s appointment permanent, who was fired by former mayor Herman Mashaba for alleged corruption over a multimillion-rand fire engine tender.
Makola, who previously served as COO of SA’s biggest metro, assumed the new role in December after the courts ruled Floyd Brink’s appointment in February 2023 was irregular.
Makola is the metro’s former executive director of emergency services. He was implicated in the ENS Africa report that looked into procurement irregularities in the city’s public safety department.
Mashaba, who served as DA executive mayor from 2016 but resigned in 2019, said his axing of Makola involved alleged corruption and irregularities “in the tender for fire engines”, though the ANC insists he is “clean”.
In 2021, the courts declared the city’s multimillion rand tender initiated in 2015 to procure 92 fire engines illegal and unconstitutional. The council had set aside about R200m for the tender also known as the red fleet contract.
Mashaba, who now leads ActionSA and has forged a political relationship with the ANC in Gauteng that saw Dr Nasiphi Moya elected as Tshwane mayor in 2024, said: “We are very much aware about this particular matter [regarding Makola]. We have engaged the ANC on this matter. We have also raised the issue with the mayor [Dada Morero] to say give us a credible candidate [for the city manager position].”
If appointed permanently as city manager, Makola will be firmly in charge of running SA’s economic and financial hub, which approved a budget of R83.1bn for 2024/25. According to the Municipal Systems Act, the city/municipal manager is responsible for municipal administration, championing service delivery and accounting for the municipality’s income, expenditure, assets and liabilities, among other functions.
The Joburg Crisis Alliance (JCA), an alliance backed by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa), the Joburg Inner City Partnership, Rivonia Circle, Defend Our Democracy and the Johannesburg Inner City Partnership, has called for a new recruitment process to be initiated urgently.
“The many complexities of Joburg require a city manager that has the competence to manage its R83bn budget, who can serve the best interest of all its 5.5-million residents, restore ethical conduct among its 40,000 staff members and within its 13 entities, and manage the coalition dynamics in an accountable and transparent manner,” it said.
“To meet the requirements of the position, a new recruitment process should be initiated as a matter of urgency by an independent executive recruitment agency. In the meantime, a senior city official, with an unblemished ethical record, and with no interest in a permanent appointment, should act to oversee a compliant recruitment process.”
The JCA said it would track the developments with keen interest, adding: “Should council proceed to appoint a city manager that does not meet the needs of the people of the city, it will mobilise its membership and other civil society partners to consider an appropriate response.”
ANC Joburg regional secretary Sasabona Manganye: “We are going to support his [Makola] appointment. We are aware that when we lost elections in 2016, the DA suspended him. He stayed home for three months with no charges against him.
“They then dismissed him without any disciplinary process having taken place. He took city for review in 2018 and he won the case in 2019 on an appeal. So, whatever charges were brought against him were proven to be bogus, that’s why he was reinstated back to the city and was appointed as COO without any issues. The process proved he’s clean.”
DA Joburg caucus leader Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku and ActionSA Joburg caucus leader and council speaker, Nobuhle Mthembu, did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
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