The City of Johannesburg council has rescinded a recommendation report for the appointment of a city manager.
After a year-long recruitment process, the post remains vacant with no permanent accounting officer.
Previously, the council convened a closed in-committee meeting where mayor Dada Morero presented a recommendation to the council to halt the appointment process for the city manager and investigate the leak of the recommendation report, saying it could have compromised the integrity of the process.
Morero later withdrew that proposal.
On Thursday, the city convened an extraordinary council sitting to hear recommendations to council regarding human resources reports, particularly for the city manager post.
After three caucus breaks sponsored by the EFF, ANC and Patriotic Alliance that resulted in a more than two-hour delay to the start of the meeting, leader of government business Sithembiso Zungu announced the withdrawal of the report.
The Sunday Times has seen a copy of the rescinded report, which details the process undertaken, from the seven panelists to the shortlisted candidates, the screening and the scores received.
This publication can reveal that former city manager Floyd Brink was in line to be presented to council as the highest-ranking candidate with a score of 114.
In the report’s ranking, he is followed by CEO of the Council for the Built Environment, Dr Msizi Myeza, in second place with 104 and chief operations officer Tshepo Makola in third place with 90.
All three candidates passed the screening, with “no negative information detected which may consider them a security risk”.
The concealed report recommended that Brink be appointed as city manager on a fixed-term performance-based contract with effect from November 1.
“The appointment of Mr Floyd Brink is subject to the candidate entering into a contract of employment and a performance management contract with the executive mayor. That in the event that [Mr] Brink is unable to or fails to take up the offer of employment, the second [Mr Myeza] or third [Mr Makola] candidate be made the offer of employment in the same terms and conditions,” reads the recommendation report that has now been withdrawn.
According to an insider, the process to recruit and appoint a city manager has long been concluded, from the advertising of the post to interviews and screening. The council meeting was scheduled for the executive to present the report to council for possible approval.
“This meeting is supposed to give permission for the mayor or his delegate to negotiate a package with the highest-ranking candidate.”
However, the process has halted with the executive withdrawing the report from council.
DA caucus leader Belinda Echeozonjoku confirmed that her party had written to the executive mayor raising questions around the delays in the conclusion of the appointment process.
“We wanted to check why the city is not appointing, and how far is the progress. We also wanted to highlight some of the acting arrangements in the city considering the state of service delivery. We told them we had received rumours that there was a leak of the recommendation report. We were told by the mayor in writing that there are no irregularities.”
Another hurdle is that according to legislation, the city manager to be appointed is to be placed on a fixed-term contract linked to the tenure of office of the current administration.
“Any appointment that is made now, cannot be longer than the length of the duration of the current term, about a year. The grace period for beyond election is only one year. Should there be a change of government, they have a prerogative to restart the process,” said a councillor source close to the process.
Morero told the DA that it is “unfortunate that he must respond to misguided hearsay on unfounded allegations on the recruitment of the city manager”.
In a letter responding to the DA’s concerns, which the Sunday Times has seen, the mayor insisted that everything is above board.
“The recruitment process is being conducted in compliance with the regulatory prescripts including the Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000 and its regulation on appointment and conditions of employment of senior manager, therefore, there is no unlawful reconfiguration of the interview panel.”
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