THE qualifications and experience of senior management in the City of uMhlathuze’s Infrastructure and Technical Services department has come under scrutiny from opposition parties.
This follows a number of organisational changes and filling of vacant positions in the critical service delivery department, including electricity and engineering.
Earlier this year, suspended Deputy Municipal Manager: Infrastructure and Technical Services, Sifiso Mdakane, officially resigned after being at the centre of a controversial disciplinary proceeding last year.
He faced charges of misconduct for failure to utilise municipal infrastructure grant funding on urgent service delivery matters for two consecutive financial years.
Tumelo Gopane has been acting in this position since Mdakane’s suspension last year and subsequent resignation.
However, this week the Democratic Alliance caucus at uMhlathuze called for a reply to a letter sent on 28 February to Municipal Manager, Dr NJ Sibeko.
Cllr Louis Fourie said they requested the names of heads of departments and managers with qualifications and years of experience, as well as registration with the Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA).
‘There is a lack of service delivery in the City and it relates to incompetent staff,’ said Fourie.
‘Managers do not have the proper qualifications and are not registered in terms of the Engineering Profession Act (EPA). To our knowledge, only one manager in this department fulfills the requirements of the EPA.
‘This translates to problems on the ground with roads, sanitation, resealing of potholes and fixing of pipes, which are not done properly the first time around,’ Fourie said.
Registered
The Engineering Council of South Africa (ECSA) sent a letter to the City last year stipulating the requirements relating to the recruitment of staff in the engineering profession.
‘For the purposes of protecting the public and the environment, the engineering profession is regulated by the EPA. It is illegal for a person who is not professionally registered to do consulting engineering work or to take engineering responsibility for engineering designs or work performed,’ said the ECSA letter.
‘A local authority who accepts the appointment of a non-professionally registered person as a competent person, has no assurance that the person will do the work in terms of a code of conduct. This might pose a threat to public health and safety,’ ECSA said in a statement.
The organisation said over a period of time, technical skills within departments responsible for infrastructure had diminished.
‘To some extent, this paucity of engineering capacity is reflected in the poor infrastructure delivery outcomes that are evident on the ground, as well as inadequate technical oversight over the management and maintenance of infrastructure.
‘This results in a huge risk of premature failure with concomitant huge replacement cost liability.’
