Capital city defies Gordhan

The City of Tshwane has defied Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan by employing 35 unqualified officials in its finance and supply-chain management units.

According to regulations that came into effect on January 1, municipalities are prohibited from employing unqualified financial and supply-chain managers.

But Tshwane yesterday ignored the regulations and thumbed its nose at Gordhan.

Speaking at the Institute of Municipal Finance Officers conference in October last year, Gordhan warned that officials would lose their jobs if they failed to comply with the new regulations.

He declared January 1 this year as the cutoff date for the employment of unqualified finance and supply-chain officials .

"The municipal regulations on minimum competency levels for accounting officers, chief financial officers, senior managers and financial officers promulgated in 2007 describe the minimum requirements that municipalities must comply with as from January1 2013," said Gordhan.

"This deadline is not negotiable.

"Generally, municipalities have a tendency to wait until the eve of a deadline to react. This tardiness will not be tolerated and officials may find themselves without a job should they fail to comply."

Despite Gordhan's unequivocal warnings, the council yesterday approved the appointment of 35 unqualified officials but gave them 12 months in which to acquire qualifications.

Six unqualified officials were already in the employ of the city, and another 50 have until July next year to obtain qualifications.

In a report tabled yesterday, the municipality acknowledged wrong-doing on its part but argued that it had had no choice.

"The department is aware of the implications of non-compliance to these regulations, hence [its request for] approval to waive the appointment requirements with a condition that the candidates' appointment contract will include a clause that states that their continued employment is subject to them attaining the required minimum competency level in the required unit standards for each competency area within a period of 12 months," the municipality said.

"The city is facing an emergency, an almost devastating situation, due to competency levels of certain key officials not being met. If an arrangement of some kind is not entered into [this] could . result in a catastrophe of some proportion."

The DA had indicated it would vote against the proposal but eventually relented.

Councillor Jan van Zyl had said the DA "cannot and will not be part of illegal resolutions".

But he has now told The Times: "Eventually, we did agree [to the proposal]. There is a backlog and we need to get the job done."

In the proposal, Tshwane argued that all appointments in the financial services department had been suspended for five months, resulting in "the incapacitation of the divisions within the department, which has a serious negative impact on service delivery, especially at supply-chain management".

The department claimed it was unable to achieve its targets as a result.

Tshwane mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa wrote to Gordhan asking for permission to employ the 35 officials. But this does not seem to have been granted.

According to DA councillor Christo van den Heever, Gordhan gave the city permission only to allow officials who had been employed before the cutoff date to acquire their qualifications by July next year.