Kunene allegedly failed to provide certain documentation that the new mayor needed pertaining to municipal service delivery programs.
Newly appointed Msukaligwa municipal manager Maqhawe Kunene has revealed the reasons for leaving the Mkhondo municipality in Piet Retief.
The reasons are that he was accused of sabotaging new mayor Mthokozisi Simelane.
Kunene was appointed as Mkhondo municipal manager in August 2017 while Vusi ‘Sgemegeme’ Motha was the mayor.
But when Simelane came into power in the manner in which he was elected – an independent candidate elected after the ANC could not agree on their own candidates follows the November 2021 local government elections, the tables turned against Kunene in Mkhondo.
In his suspension letter to Kunene just two months after he was elected mayor, Simelane wrote: “I requested you to provide the status quo report of the municipality in order for me as an executive mayor to perform my duties. At about 15h00 on the 24th of November 2021, you provided me with documents, which could not assist me to perform my duties”.
He was therefore suspended…
Last month Kunene was appointed the municipal manager of Msukaligwa.
Kunene told IOL that it was not true that he was sabotaging Simelane.
He said he realised that he was probably not Simelane’s preferred municipal manager “and that he was not comfortable with working with me because I joined the municipality at the time when there was a different political leadership.
“So I elected to leave the municipality after having discussions with him and we agreed that we part ways amicably. There is therefore no cloud hanging over me,” said Kunene.
Kunene is currently under pressure to reveal to the Msukaligwa municipality why he left Mkhondo and if he won’t do the same thing he did at his previous workplace of sabotaging a sitting mayor.
(edited by ZK)
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