The political game playing continued in the Makhado Municipality over the past week, with yet another urgent council meeting held to try and justify the appointment of a chief financial officer (CFO) and to respond to pending litigation. For the time being, the council has decided to put the current acting CFO on “special leave” and punish the municipal workers who protested against what they consider an illogical and possibly illegal decision by the council.

The chaotic situation at Makhado stems from the decision by the ANC’s top structures in the region to redeploy the current CFO of the Vhembe District Municipality (VDM) and appoint her in the vacant CFO position at Makhado.

VDM is one of the worst-performing municipalities in the province, whereas Makhado has received unqualified opinions from the auditor-general (AG) the last couple of years. In the latest AG report for VDM, several problems were raised, such as R644 million that was spent where management had ignored supply-chain-management regulations or simply splashed money on expenses that were not budgeted for. The VDM’s billing system is in a complete state of disarray, and, apart from that, more than half the water being distributed gets “lost” in the distribution network.

But despite this worrying financial track record of VDM, the ANC’s political management team (PMT) persisted and pushed through a council decision on 30 August to appoint Ms Mulatwa Thangavhuelelo, VDM’s current CFO. In the process, they ignored the selection committee’s recommendation that the person who scored the highest during the interviews, Mr Godfrey Raliphada, be appointed.

Raliphada, who has served as Makhado Municipality’s CFO for more than two years, did not take the decision lightly. On 1 September, a day after the council announced the controversial decision, he filed papers in the Polokwane High Court, stating his intention to request an interdict to prevent the municipality from appointing a new CFO. In his court papers, he also insinuates that the decision to appoint a political “favourite” is part of a cadre-deployment strategy driven by a group of politicians with ulterior motives. He asserts that the application is about the “abuse of powers, illegality, irrationality, and procedural unfairness”.

An urgent meeting of the Makhado Municipal Council was held on Monday (11^th) to discuss the pending litigation. Several ANC councillors did not attend this meeting, possibly showing that the decision to appoint Thangavhuelelo was never a unanimous one. During the meeting, however, a decision was taken to appoint attorneys to oppose the application in the High Court.

To add some sting to their actions, the council opted to place Raliphada on “special leave” while the court processes continue. The municipal workers who previously engaged in protest action will also be punished with a reduction of pay for the period that the action continued.

The mayor of Makhado, Samuel Munyai, had previously said that one of the reasons Raliphada had not been appointed was because of gender equity requirements. On Monday, however, the council resolution was changed to read that Thangavhuelelo was appointed “because she was more capacitated on competency assessment”.

Raliphada’s application for an interdict was set down for a hearing in the High Court in Polokwane on Tuesday (12^th). The matter was, however, removed from the roll and rescheduled for a hearing next Tuesday (19^th).

When Raliphada’s “special leave” should start is uncertain. On Tuesday, he was still seen at the office, doing his normal work. What was also unclear was which of the municipal workers would be punished for protesting as both SAMWU and IMATU, the two dominant trade unions in the municipality, had supported the protest action.

The secretary of the local branch of SAMWU, Mr Tsanwani Raduwa, said on Wednesday that they were surprised by the announcement that Raliphada would be put on special leave. “As a union, we are confident that Mr Raliphada will succeed with his court application, and we are supporting him,” he said.

Mr Mpho Mulaudzi, the chairperson of the local branch of IMATU, said that witnessing how some of the councillors conducted themselves was really embarrassing. He said that they had all solemnly sworn to obey, respect, and uphold the country’s constitution and all other laws, but they were clearly not doing so. Mulaudzi said that the council had violated clauses of the collective labour agreement by victimising an employee who had lodged a valid grievance. “They have violated his constitutional rights and they are not promoting administration that is fair and procedurally correct,” he said.

Mulaudzi accused the ANC’s PMT of interfering in the administration of the municipality.

The representative of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the council, Ms Glenda Furumela, was also of the opinion that Raliphada was being treated unfairly and should not have been put on special leave simply because he opposed an unfair decision. “Our stance is that we always support the independence of the judiciary and that any person has the legal right to institute any process, should they feel aggrieved,” she said.