EFF challenges new JS Moroka appointments

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EFF challenges new JS Moroka appointments
SINISTER: Following the ousting of notorious municipal manager Thami Kubheka after a bitter war between him and the mayor Thulare Madileng threatened to tear the municipality apart, the EFF is now directing its barrels at COGTA MEC Mandla Msibi over his decision to fill Kubheka's vacant post. PICTURE BY DrJSMLM

The party wants a court of law to set aside the appointments and declare them unconstitutional.


The EFF in the JS Moroka local municipality in Siyabuswa is currently challenging new appointments made by the municipality as illegal. It alleges municipal laws were breached when Jeffrey Mzobe was made acting chief financial officer and Sello Ngomane the acting municipal manager.

Lawyer Simon Setsoalo said his client, the Economic Freedom Fighters, are taking co-operative governance MEC Mandla Msibi to court for the appointments of the two.

He said the appointments should be declared illegal by the Mpumalanga High Court as they happened without consultation with the municipal council…

Mzobe and Ngomane were appointed on 15 July 2020, for a contract entered into between them and Mandla Msibi – which expires on 15 January 2021.

ALSO SEE: Expelled JS Moroka councillors hit back

The EFF wants all decisions taken by Mzobe and Ngomane in their respective acting capacities declared illegal.

EFF challenges new JS Moroka appointments
Mpumalanga co-operative governance MEC Mandla Msibi who is being hauled into court for new appointments in JS Moroka local municipality

Ngomane got appointed as the acting manager after the expulsion of municipal manager Thami Kubheka when relations between him and mayor Thulare Madileng seriously soured.

RELATED: Madileng and Kubheka go to war

Kubheka is current at the labour court, challenging a decision that led to him being fired by Madileng.

The Chief Financial Officer resigned in May 2020…

EFF councilllor Jackson Malatjie said Ngomane and Mzobe were appointed “without being requested by the municipality to act in these positions” and as such they are illegal.

The squabbles in the JS Moroka municipality are an off-shoot of a stem that is the ANC’s upcoming Mpumalanga conference, where Madileng sides with acting chairman Mandla Ndlovu and Kubheka with his rival Premier Refilwe Mtshweni-Tsipane. 

The man who pulls the strings in the Nkangala region is Speedy Mashilo, a regional ANC leader who is punted as deputy chair in Ndlovu’s slate and from who Madileng allegedly gets instructions.  

“Mzobe was appointed as acting Chief Financial Officer when there is no provision in section 56 of the municipal systems act that permits Msibi to appoint Mzobe,” Malatjie said in his affidavit attached in the application to challenge the appointments.

They say the municipal laws doesn’t allow someone from outside the state to be appointed as municipal manager, such as Ngomane who comes from the private sector.

Mzobe is an employee at the department of co-operative governance and “has not been seconded by finance MEC Pat Ngomane to be the acting Chief Financial Officer,” said Malatjie.

“We have been attending all council sittings since January 2020 and there is no where it mentions there would be appointments. As councillors we have never seen the CVs of Mzobe and we don’t know whether he has the skills, expertise, competencies and qualifications as prescribed,” he said.

The matter is set for 4 August 2020 at the Mpumalanga High Court sitting in Middelburg.

(edited by ZK)

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