There are times, in Council, when it feels like we are part of some elaborate Hollywood movie. Apart from the lavishly over-catered functions, there are the lawsuits, the fraud and corruption, the prima-donnas and the tension. But the real problem is all the actors.
In Buffalo City Metro Municipality, many of our senior management have been in “acting” positions for years. The acting Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Vernon Pillay, has been starring in this role for over two years, since Brian Shepherd left in 2009. The acting Municipal Manager, Mr. Andile Fani was appointed in 2010, and his permanent replacement has still not been identified. The new Municipal Systems Act amendment provides that “[a] person appointed in [such a role] may not be appointed to act for a period that exceeds three months”. This is almost never adhered to. Worse still, in some cases, they are “acting” because the permanent employee is suspended, facing disciplinary action, which is often months or even years in finalising.
The issue is that persons “acting” as directors are generally “acting” in roles well above their pay grade. They lack the qualifications and/or experience to be permanently appointed to such positions, and therefore frequently underperform. This has significant consequences for a municipality facing the service delivery challenges that Buffalo City does. In particular, it means that the decisions made are often questionable or subject to challenge on the grounds that they have been improperly thought through.
One final issue to consider is that these “acting” directors of our multi-billion rand organization are paid an acting allowance equal to the difference between their normal pay grade and that of the role they are fulfilling. When one considers that these employees have been responsible for the huge amounts of irregular, unauthorised and/or fruitless and wasteful expenditure (R197 million in the last financial year!) within the municipality, we have to ask: Is it worth it?
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