Vryheid community services director resigns after failing to pass matric twice

Vryheid Director of Community Services Archie Khumalo has resigned.

Khumalo was recently accused of fraudulently misrepresenting his qualifications, after a letter from the provincial department of education concluded that he had failed to write his matric exam the first time, and failed all his subjects ten years later, reports Vryheid Herald.

Municipal manager Bonga Ntanzi confirmed he has received Khumalo’s letter of resignation, which indicates that he is resigning to attend to personal issues and hopes to one day return to AbaQulusi Municipality once they have been resolved.

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Ntanzi, who considered himself a good friend of Khumalo’s, described the situation as: “very, very disappointing.

“It is unfortunate that all of this has happened at a time when we thought we were turning the corner. It is taking my time away from making sure that the municipality recovers financially and is very disturbing and destabilising. Another thing that saddens me is that he (Khumalo) is going home unemployed.”

The Vryheid Herald asked about the legal standing of all of the decisions Khumalo has made as director of Community Services, namely if the municipality will be looking into contracts there were awarded and staff appointments that were made by Khumalo, to determine if there was any self-interest or dodgy dealings involved.

Ntanzi responded saying: “There is no implication on the legal standing of the decisions he has taken. As director, he was only authorised to make recommendations as far as contracts and staff are concerned, but all the decision were [to] be taken by me. Even a cleaner in his department is appointed by the accounting officer, which is me.”

There will be no disciplinary or legal ramifications for Khumalo to face, even if he did indeed misrepresent his qualifications, it seems.

“If he had not resigned, we would have to follow procedure and charge him with misconduct and fraudulent misrepresentation. Then he would have been fired if found guilty. Now he has resigned, he can’t be fired, but when we receive proof that he either has the qualification or not, the council will make the final call as to how to proceed,” said Ntanzi.

While Khumalo seems to have escaped any repercussions if it comes to be that his wrongdoing is proven, the municipality will be calling on LexisNexis to provide an explanation for their role in the recruitment process.

LexisNexis is an independent company that was appointed to verify qualifications and perform competency assessments. They had included a note in their report on Khumalo indicating that they were unable to verify his matric.

“I want to write and raise my displeasure with LexisNexis. They were paid a good sum of money so it is not good enough for them to say in the report that they could not verify. They should have verified with Umalusi and SAQA,” said Ntanzi.

The Vryheid Herald attempted to contact LexisNexis to hear their side, but a recorded message indicated that they were unavailable due to a team-building exercise they were engaged in until tomorrow. An email was sent to them outlining the issue, however no response was received at the time of publishing.

Vryheid Mayor Jerry Sibiya said he felt very bad about the fact that the council may have been duped. He has enquired about the missing matric certificate in the past and was told that Khumalo had lost it and would be requesting a copy from the department of education.

Cllr Sibiya will be calling for an urgent meeting of the Executive Council (Exco) to take place on Tuesday to present Khumalo’s letter of resignation. Thereafter, a full council meeting will take place to declare the position vacant before the post is advertised and the recruitment process begins.

In the meantime, Ntanzi will be acting director of community services until the position can be filled, this time by a qualified candidate.

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