Cape Town - Drakenstein mayor Conrad Poole has said that the municipality will challenge Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma’s refusal to waive retirement for the council’s 65-year-old Municipal Manager Johan Leibbrandt in court, but only as a last resort.
Poole said that the municipality was still hopeful Dlamini Zuma would reconsider and grant approval for the full five years.
“Unfortunately, all my attempts to secure an audience with Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma to discuss and resolve this matter have been ignored.”
He said the municipality’s application for a retirement waiver was not unusual or covert and that the legislation allows managers in municipalities to work beyond the retirement age.
Dlamini Zuma granted approval for Leibbrandt’s appointment for a period of six months up to August 31, 2022 but told Poole that once the period had elapsed, the post would become vacant, and the municipality would have to embark on a nationally competitive process to fill the post.
Poole argued that Leibbrandt had scarce skills that the municipality wanted to hold on to and that it was important that Leibbrandt concluded “the innovative and transformational service delivery projects he started between 2017 and 2022.”
Poole dismissed opposition to the waiver by ANC councillors as political games and cheap point scoring.
Leader of the opposition ANC on the council Moutie Richards said their concerns were not so much about Leibbrandt staying on, but about what they claimed was a lack of transparency by Poole and the DA on the request to Dlamini Zuma and the reasons behind the DA’s insistence that Leibbrandt remain in place.
Richards said he had asked for the correspondence to enable him and his colleagues to make an informed decision on Leibbrandt.