Stop Sol Plaatje from being a one-man-show

12 September 2019

Release: Immediate

The Democratic Alliance is once again calling on the Executive Mayor of Sol Plaatje municipality, Patrick Mabilo, to suspend the acting Municipal Manager, Nomonde Tyabashe-Kesiamang, following her latest attempt to cling to power.

This comes amidst Tyabashe-Kesiamang’s controversial appointment of a junior official to stand in for her as the acting MM, during her own absence. This is unheard of.

Not only should the stand-in appointee come from the ranks of the municipality’s senior management team, but the appointment must also be approved through a council resolution – which has not happened.

The fact that Tyabashe-Kesiamang has, since her irregular appointment as acting MM, failed to interact with any of her senior managers, is also questionable.

It is will do anything in her power to assume total control over Sol Plaatje. increasingly clear that Tyabashe-Kesiamang wants to run a one-man-show and that she

This should raise alarm bells.

Already, we are worried about why Tyabashe-Kesiamang is so reluctant to proceed with the Council approved project to replace corrugated-iron toilets by concrete toilets in Phutanang. The R11 million deviation for the project was already approved by Council under the leadership of former acting MM, Boy Dhluwayo, who warned that a failure to approve this deviation, could result in the municipality losing the said funds.

Is the inaction of Tyabashe-Kesiamang, who is already responsible for the municipality previously forfeiting R110 million due to her failure to hand over the stormwater  project, also going to cost the municipality another R11 million? We certainly hope not.

Tyabashe-Kesiamang is not the person for the MM job. She has consistently shown to blatantly disregard the authority of Council and seems to think she is a law unto herself.

She must be removed from this position as a matter of urgency, before any more damage is inflicted on the already broken municipality.

The people of Sol Plaatje deserve an MM who carries their best interests, not selfish and destructive agendas, at heart.

Queries:

Christopher Phiri

DA Caucus Leader, Sol Plaatje Municipality

078 740 9930

Shelley De Witt

Researcher

082 847 1387