R1.4m for Joburg’s powerful chief of staff with ‘just a matric’

Forced to eat humble pie and issue a written apology within a month of his appointment to a R1.4m a year job as chief of staff to the City of Johannesburg’s speaker, Gregory Daniels is now ruffling feathers with queries as to whether he is qualified for the job.

Despite questions about Daniels’s appointment and lack of tertiary qualifications, city officials say it is in line with their HR appointment policies for political posts.

A chief of staff is a political appointment, with various governance officials telling Sunday Times Daily that qualifications, suitability and experience are often overlooked by those who do the hiring. Those hired, as in Daniels’s appointment, are often headhunted.

Daniels was appointed to his post on December 1 2021. The council’s speaker is the DA’s Vasco da Gama.

In an announcement in November on municipal employees salaries and pay hikes,  department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma revealed data which showed that executive mayors of metros can earn salaries upwards of R1.4m, while speakers, deputy mayors and members of executive mayoral committees earn salaries ranging from R1m to R1.1m.

These salaries often do not include benefits such as vehicle, cellphone, data and travel allowances.

Mabine Seabe, spokesperson for Johannesburg mayor Mpho Phalatse, said: “Daniels has completed matric and has undertaken to further his studies.

“He further has decades of relevant experience [in] local government and has served in senior management, having previously served as a regional director.

“His employment in political office is covered through the city’s 2012 talent acquisition policy for the filling of fixed-term [five-year] contracts in political offices.”

The policy states that appointments of staff to political offices within the city are fixed to the term of office of their political Masters, which is five years, and that the head of the office where the appointee will work has the option to advertise the position or headhunt a person to fill the post.

If headhunted, those making the appointment may, according to the policy, deviate from the standard recruitment processes, “but only under exceptional circumstances for senior or scarce skill positions”.

The policy states that motivation for headhunting must be submitted to senior city executives.

In terms of qualifications, the headhunted candidate “shall be suitably qualified for the job as a result of the combination of two or more of the following: appropriate qualifications, prior learning, relevant experience, capacity to acquire, within reasonable time [at most six months], the ability to do the job”.

Sunday Times Daily has not been provided with information on what tertiary qualifications Da Gama’s chief of staff requires.

As the DA talks about eliminating the ANC’s cadre deployment, Daniels’s appointment has raised concerns in council corridors about whether he embodies the party’s meritocracy.

His appointment is not the first to raise eyebrows.

In 2018 Marietha Aucamp, former Tshwane metro mayor Solly Msimanga’s ex-chief of staff, bagged her position even though she was unqualified. At the time, the salary for the post was R1.2m and required the candidate to have a bachelor’s degree or equivalent qualification. She was eventually removed.

On February 14, barely two months after his appointment, Daniels — facing a potentially damaging disciplinary hearing — was forced to issue a written apology to city official Busisiwe Ngwenya after he threatened in a council forum to have her “investigated”.

Ngwenya, who refused to comment on the incident to Sunday Times Daily, accused Daniels, in an official grievance, of “unfair victimisation and defamation of character”.

“During the period of being singled out for investigation as a so-called comrade, Mr Daniels requested for personal and HR-related information from non-HR [human resources] and LR [labour relations] officials, thus tarnishing my reputation and good name.”

She said Daniels’s tone had instilled in her “fear and anxiety”.

Sunday Times Daily is in possession of the apology, which states: “I, Greg Daniels ... hereby commit to resist abuse of power and authority by interfering with the business of the legislature.

“This serves as a written apology for using inappropriate and unprofessional language. This serves as an apology for requesting sensitive information from officials and to never commit such unprofessional conduct.”

City spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane failed to respond to questions, referring Sunday Times Daily to Da Gama’s office.

Da Gama failed to answer questions on Daniels’s qualifications, while Virgil James, spokesperson for his office, referred all questions to Daniels, who failed to comment on questions about his qualifications.

In response to detailed questions, the 65-year-old said: “Yes, I was headhunted for the position of chief of staff in the office of the speaker [in] terms of a council approved policy applicable exclusively to the city’s political offices. If you require this policy, you can contact the city’s group human capital management department.

“The Busi Ngwenya matter is purely an internal policy matter that was resolved at the first sitting arising out of a grievance, hence the apology. It did not require an investigation by group forensics as there was no allegation of administrative or financial wrongdoing. An employee/colleague felt aggrieved and followed the HR process to resolve such matters. I see no further need to engage about myself on an article that I still have no clarity on.”

Some of the questions Daniels declined to answer were:

• Have you obtained a national senior certificate [matric certificate] or do you have a senior certificate [certificate awarded to adult learners], and if so, in what year did you obtain your certificate?
• When did you complete high school? What is your highest standard passed?
• Have you completed a tertiary qualification [technikon, university or any other tertiary institution] and if so, what year did you obtain your qualification and what qualification did you obtain?
• In terms of the position you currently occupy within the City of Johannesburg, what qualifications are needed for the position and do you believe that with your qualifications and experience you are qualified for the position?

Based on Daniels’s appointment document, “Headhunt, Executive Search and Targeted Recruitment, Private Office of the Speaker”, he was appointed despite not having provided proof that he had a matric certificate or completed his tertiary studies.

The document is signed by Da Gama, Vicky Shuping (secretary to council legislature), Andile Gobinca (director: finance legislature) and Floyd Brink (acting city manager).

Daniels’s CV, which is attached to his appointment document, states he has occupied various positions in the municipality for 47 years.

While Daniels in his CV says he obtained a senior certificate at Noordgesig Secondary School, he neglects to mention in which year this was obtained. The certificate is also not part of the annexures in his CV.

According to the document, he studied at Technikon SA in pursuit of a National Diploma in Administration, but does not mention when or if this was completed.

Some of the subjects he states were completed include municipal administration I and II, public administration I, kommunikasie in Afrikaans, local governance finance I and II, personnel management I and labour law.

His CV lists additional educational qualifications as being, among others, environment of local government in SA, policy development and analysis at local level, local government financing and development and ethics in government.

The CV does not list where he studied these courses.

Lupi Ngcayisa, spokesperson for the Gauteng cooperative governance, urban planning and traditional affairs department, said there is no explicit regulatory framework in place that caters for the appointment — and matters related to such an appointment — of a chief of staff in the office of the speaker. 

“Notwithstanding this, all municipalities are statutorily required to have recruitment and selection policies in place and in this regard, such policies must be observed when consideration is given to the appointment of staff in the offices of political office bearers, which includes the appointment of chiefs of staff.

“To fill the codified statutory vacuum that exists on the appointment of staff in political office bearers at municipalities, the minister of Cogta, on September 21 2021, published the Local Government Municipal Staff Regulations in Government Gazette No 45181. These regulations will come into operation on July 1 2022.”

He explained that the regulations set out a legislative regime on the recruitment of all municipal staff, including staff in the office of political office bearers and, importantly, specifies the inherent requirements for a particular job.