Mogale City council illegally appoints ‘dubious’ ex-manager as municipal boss

The Mogale City council in Gauteng has been accused of illegally appointing the former executive manager for economic development services as municipal manager.

The municipality’s legal division has written an e-mail to executive mayor Tyrone Gray pointing out the irregular appointment of Makhosana Msezana, who started his term on Monday.

According to the internal e-mail dated 4 May 2022, which The Citizen has seen, competency results of the three shortlisted candidates were not tabled in council as required by local government regulations.

According to an official who cannot be named for fear of reprisal, the panel that conducted the interviews was supposed to meet and formulate a competency result report to be tabled in council.

“This is the report that was supposed to be considered by council in making the appointment. So at the time when the council took the decision to appoint (Msezana), the competency report was not there as required by regulations,” the official who was part of the meeting said.

Another official close to the selection process said the council was ostensibly bending over backwards to ensure that Msezana was appointed as municipal manager.

According to the appointment letter signed by the mayor, dated 9 May 2022, council took the resolution to appoint Msezana on 28 April 2022 in line with the Municipal Structures Act.

Msezana has not responded to a request for comment.

Gray is also yet to respond to a request for comment.

Last week The Citizen reported how the municipality had raised eyebrows after the selection and interview panel shortlisted Msezana, who was allegedly responsible for the council’s R1.9 billion mega projects fiasco.

Internal sources who spoke to The Citizen on condition of anonymity claim that as a divisional manager, Msezana was directly responsible for the execution of the municipality’s two mega construction projects – the incomplete Krugersdorp CBD taxi rank and Brickvalley housing project.

When the municipality’s Internal Audit Unit ordered an internal verification audit of the municipality’s two mega projects, Msezana allegedly withheld information and key documents from the auditors.

The Citizen has previously revealed how the mega projects have been marred by poor planning, poor implementation and a lack of monitoring, which has seen cost overruns for the Krugersdorp CBD taxi rank ballooning from R47.7 million to R98.5 million.

ALSO READ: Mogale City falters: R1.9-billion mega-projects riddled with inconsistencies

The audit, conducted by forensic investigating firm Comperio, revealed that there was no evidence that bids were solicited and evaluated to select the main contractor for the two projects, or that the contractor had expertise or resources to complete the project within the timeframe and budget.

– siphom@citizen.co.za