Major metro shakeup

[caption id="attachment_110088" align="alignright" width="300"] NEW BLOOD: Mayor Danny Jordaan, centre, with newly appointed acting city manager Johann Mettler and interim corporate services executive director Vuyo Zitumane after a special council meeting in Port Elizabeth yesterday. Picture: EUGENE COETZEE[/caption]

Top officials seconded to bolster Bay management

THE man who took charge of Nelson Mandela Bay’s administration yesterday is a seasoned legal guru who led one of the Western Cape’s best-run municipalities for nearly four years.

A law masters graduate from the University of the Western Cape and Sweden’s Lund University, Johann Mettler, who managed Paarl’s Drakenstein Municipality, was appointed the Bay’s acting city manager for at least three months. It is likely he will stay longer. His appointment – brought by Cooperative Governance Minister Pravin Gordhan – forms part of a major leadership shakeup which places the Bay’s administration in new hands for the months leading up to next year’s municipal elections.

Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Board chairwoman and lauded administrator Vuyo Zitumane took over the troubled corporate services department.

Department head Mod Ndoyana is on suspension and appearing before a disciplinary hearing.

Meanwhile, mayor Danny Jordaan has announced that human settlements boss Lindile Petuna, who had been suspended for misconduct, quit this week, just days into his disciplinary hearing. -Nwabisa Makunga, Rochelle de Kock and Mkhululi Ndamase