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DA leader Mmusi Maimane has instructed Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille to dismiss former ANC councillor Loyiso Nkohla from his new cushy job in the DA-led City of Cape Town.
Maimane has given De Lille until December to get rid of Nkohla, who infamously led a faeces-dumping campaign across Cape Town in 2013, as a form of protest against poor sanitation in townships and informal settlements.
This comes less than a month after Nkohla began work as executive support officer to Ernest Sonnenberg, the mayoral committee member responsible for utility services in the City of Cape Town, a R701 000 position.
City Press understands that Maimane, who is among a number of senior DA leaders who had reservations about Nkohla’s appointment, has given De Lille until December to reverse the appointment.
Maimane admitted this week to “consulting” De Lille about the matter, saying she worked on a solution going forward.
City Press broke the news of Nkohla’s appointment two weeks ago.
“I was surprised by the news of the appointment and requested an explanation from the city. That explanation was inadequate and, as such, I have asked our colleagues there to ensure Mr Nkohla’s employment contract is not renewed when it ends in December, which has been agreed to,” he said.
Oversight over political appointments
“This was a political appointment, decided on by a politician (as opposed to an administrative appointment) and, as such, it is entirely appropriate for the DA to exercise oversight over those kinds of appointments,” added Maimane.
He said it was important that the DA has some oversight over political appointments, when asked about the party and party leader meddling on state decisions.
“This was a request I made to the mayor [De Lille] and she has the ability to exercise her decision,” he said.
Maimane revealed that at this weekend’s meeting, the party’s federal executive adopted a motion empowering the party “to exert better oversight over our governments”.
He said the public needed to know and be confident that the DA will govern with integrity, with no corruption, and will not compromise on its values.
It is not clear why Maimane says Nkohla’s contract is ending in December, because the City of Cape Town previously said Nkohla’s contract was aligned to Sonnenberg’s, who was only reappointed to his position after the August 3 local government elections.
De Lille, however, suggested in her speech to the council last month that from January next year, she would “reorder” her mayoral committee and also reduce the number of directorates.
This week, a Cape Town daily newspaper reported that De Lille was planning to reduce her Mayco from 11 members to six.
This may be an opportunity to get rid of not only mayoral committee members, but their unwanted executive support officers such as Nkohla.
Nkohla is a former co-leader of the Ses’khona People’s Movement, an organisation established to fight for better sanitation in Cape Town’s informal settlements and townships. The organisation made headlines in 2013 for dumping human faeces at provincial government buildings and at the Cape Town International Airport in protest against poor sanitation in poor areas.
The former ANC councillor in the City of Cape Town defected to the DA in June with 500 members of Ses’khona. He did not take up the party’s membership, owing to his unresolved legal issues, but the DA saw fit to deploy him as the equivalent of an adviser to Sonnenberg.
City of Cape Town spokesperson Priya Reddy told City Press earlier this month that political appointments were made at the discretion of the office bearer. Nkohla declined to comment.
