The ANC-ActionSA coalition in Tshwane is braced for confrontation as the ANC-led provincial government seeks to reverse the appointment of key administrators, including city manager Johann Mettler.
Co-operative governance MEC Jacob Mamabolo has Mettler and other DA-appointed city administrators in his sights, flagging their appointments as irregular as the panel that appointed them included one more member than the prescribed number.
It is understood that the regional ANC wants them removed from their posts, and is scheduled to hold a media briefing on the issue on July 4.
However, ActionSA, which holds the mayoral seat and is crucial to holding the coalition together, is having none of it. Chair Michael Beaumont says the city has received a legal opinion indicating that attempts to remove the officials more than two years after their appointment would be likely to fall flat.
He agrees that there was a “mess-up” in the process, but believes the MEC has acted on it far too late. Besides, says Beaumont, ActionSA has no intention of destabilising the municipal administration by removing key officials who are working hard with executive mayor Nasiphi Moya to turn the city’s poor financials around and boost service delivery.
“We won’t tolerate instability in the senior administrative leadership of the municipality … and we won’t support the removal of the city manager … It is something we are not willing to entertain … we will not shift on this. This is a red line issue for us. We will walk. We know [Mettler] is the right guy for the job,” Beaumont told Business Day.
It is understood that the push from the province to remove the DA-appointed officials is related to internal ANC battles in the region. The deputy mayor, Eugene Modise, is also the ANC’s regional chair, and the party heads for an elective conference in the coming months.
Mettler is a highly respected bureaucrat who has spent almost 30 years in the public service. He worked in the National Treasury, including closely with former finance minister Pravin Gordhan during the 1990s, to develop the first white paper on local government, and is credited with turning around the Msunduzi and Drakenstein municipalities.
His appointment as Tshwane city manager was viewed positively due to his lack of political affiliation, his professionalism and his knack for cleaning out local government and instilling an adherence to the law.
Municipal administrators in SA are not having an easy time of it — professionals are increasingly being targeted in councils countrywide as the space for corruption and maladministration narrows in a coalition environment. Insiders in Tshwane are concerned about the move to shift the senior managers, indicating that they are viewed as a “barrier to corruption”.
For now at least, the battle against officials in Tshwane is being fought politically. However, in Ekurhuleni it has taken a deadly turn. This week a promising senior auditor in the city, Mpho Mafole, was shot and killed in his car in what appeared to be an assassination, just three months after he took up the post as the city’s group divisional head of corporate and forensic audits.
This follows an assassination attempt on Ekurhuleni’s CFO, Kagiso Lerutla, in 2023, and a reported attempt on the life of EFF councillor Nkululeko Dunga last year.
Moya is set to meet Mamabolo in the coming weeks. Whether ActionSA loses the battle to protect Mettler and other officials in Tshwane and the coalition collapses, or it is persuaded by the ANC to back off, both would be a major setback for the council.
However, the broader battle simmering beneath the surface across SA municipalities to protect professionals and administrators is just beginning.
• Marrian is Business Day editor-at-large.
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