ANC gives Tshwane mayor 24 hours to cancel city manager’s special leave
On Wednesday, the mayor's office issued a statement announcing that Mosola had been granted special leave.
Tshwane City Manager Moeketsi Mosola during a press briefing at Tshwane House, 25 October 2018, Pretoria. Picture: Jacques Nelles
Lawyers acting for the Tshwane ANC have written to mayor Stevens Mokgalapa, threatening to take him to court if he does not cancel outgoing city manager Moeketsi Mosola’s special leave within 24 hours.
On Wednesday, the mayor’s office issued a statement announcing that Mosola had been granted special leave while a separation agreement between him and the municipality was finalised.
“This means the city manager remains in his position until 31st August 2019 subject to finalising the Separation Agreement,” Mokgalapa’s office said in the statement.
It seemed that the City of Tshwane’s council and Mosola had reached an agreement last month which would have seen him receiving an 18% salary increase and a pay out for the remainder of his contract, City Press reported.
It was estimated that the total figure Mosola would receive was around R7 million.
The city manager was at the centre of the GladAfrica saga, which saw the engineering firm awarded a R12 billion project management tender in 2017. The contract – which was found to be irregular by the Auditor-General and in at least two legal opinions – was subsequently cancelled, but not before the City spent R500 million on it from November 2017 to February this year.
Two attempts to suspend Mosola, after the irregular awarding of the tender was exposed, failed. The first attempt was directly linked to his role in the GladAfrica scandal, while the second was related to claims he contravened the municipal staff members’ code of conduct.
In its legal correspondence, which News24 has seen, the ANC Tshwane Region claims that Mokgalapa’s decision to grant Mosola special leave “constitutes a blatant disregard of [a] Council resolution and the law”.
It said that, if the mayor did not halt the special leave within 24 hours of receiving the letter, it would approach the High Court to apply for an urgent interdict against Mokgalapa.
When contacted for comment, the mayor’s spokesperson Omogolo Taunyane said they had not yet received the letter and were unaware of it.
She also said there was no update on the deliberations on a settle agreement with Mosola.
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