Media Room

13 August 2019 - The Executive Mayor, Cllr Gift Moerane would like to express his sincere appreciation, to the Golden Triangle Chamber of Commerce (GTCoC), in taking an acute interest in matters relating to Emfuleni Local Municipality.

The Executive Mayor of the Emfuleni Local Municipality,as First Citizen in the area, is committed to working with communities and all stakeholders to find amicable solutions to social and economic challenges facing the residents.

The GTCoC has written an open letter to the Executive Mayor, which dominated the social media yesterday, 12 August 2019, calling for the suspension of the Acting Municipal Manager and Chief Financial Officer. 

Therefore, in observance of the Executive Mayor’s enduring commitment to rejuvenateand restore the image of Emfuleni Local Municipality, the GTCoC needed to have afforded him an opportunity to have comprehensively responded to their communication dated the 11th of August 2019 prior to the publication of the open letter.

Consequent to the frank and sweeping publication of the letter, the Executive Mayor qualms the rationale in the way the open communication was simultaneously communicated to himself and the public domain.

Prior to the subsequent content of the GTCoC communication, the Executive Mayor has continuously expressed his insistence to cooperate with formalized business sector in the interest of the local community. Furthermore the Executive Mayor prior to the aforementioned communication, met with a delegation of the GTCoC to converse on Emfuleni Local Municipality matters, of which no antagonism was apparent or even communicated on the Smart Meter process to the Executive Mayor. 

It should nevertheless be mentioned that the communication and said intentions remains dubious; more specifically the request of the GTCoC to intervene in municipal administration and call for suspension of senior officials without properly substantiating the reasons for the purported suspension. The Executive Mayor being a strong proponent of due legal process and rule of law cannot comply withsaid vigilante approach to merely suspend the Acting Municipal Manager Oupa Nkoane together with the Chief Financial Officer Andile Dyakala without consequence or observance of audi alteram partum. It is further conceivable that the aforesaid suggestion of the GTCoC to suspend senior managers without due process will cause negative statutory and financial consequences, aside from rendering the entire institution without administrative leadership, which will further intensify hardships within the locality of Emfuleni Municipality.

The Executive Mayor remains committed to the outcomes of the Financial Recovery Plan; of which the proposed suggestion of the GTCoC does not form part of the financial recovery and is most likely to deepen the financial hardship of the institution. The Executive Mayor however remains resolute in finding long term solutions to the current adversities facing the Emfuleni Local Municipality and will continue to seek sustained synergy between business and the local administration. 

Issued on behalf of the Emfuleni Local Municipality Executive Mayor, Cllr Gift Moerane by: 
Lebo Mofokeng 
Mayoral Spokesperson
Tel: 016 950 5488 
Cell: 079 510 7324
E-mail: lebo@emfuleni.gov.za