Acting city manager Peter Neilson was quizzed by the Municipal public accounts committee (Mpac) on how much the city was spending on legally reviewing the cases of suspended staff.
Neilson was further accused of allowing political meddling in the administration.
Mpac also wants a detailed report on the disciplinary cases, saying it must serve before the committee and not just the council.
While the DA accused Neilson of allowing political meddling, the ANC on Tuesday wanted to know exactly how much the review process was costing the city.
The EFF queried the point of the reviews altogether.
Neilson did not respond to the questions about how much the city had forked out on legal fees for the disciplinary reviews.
Responding to some of the questions, Neilson said the review panel was set to convene on Tuesday afternoon.
“The fact that we have a review going on does not mean that everything will go in the opposite direction,” Neilson said.
“It was never the council resolution's intention to turn everything upside and there will be reviews that go both ways,” Neilson said.
Neilson said there was a case where the review panel had recommended that the municipality appeal a bargaining council decision that an official must come back to work.
DA councillor Morne Steyn said council did not have the authority to decide on disciplinary matters.
“I have raised my concerns quite clearly at the council meeting and unfortunately this was passed. This resolution does not speak with where Mpac comes in, it just goes to council. It does not necessarily provide us the opportunity to deliberate on the matter,
“Another problem is that council does not have the authority to take decisions on disciplinary matters; this is an administrative function and should be dealt with by the administration of the institution and not be influenced by council,” Steyn said.
Steyn said the move to take the disciplinary cases to council was tantamount to political meddling.
“The mayor has taken upon himself to appoint investigators. In my opinion we are simply meddling in matters of the administration,” Steyn said.
ANC councillor Ncediso Captain requested that a detailed report be tabled at the next ordinary Mpac meeting in March and that it also includes legal fees.
“What’s important is that council took a decision that the city manager must deal with this. Let us respect the council decision but an update must also be brought to this committee,” Captain said.
EFF councillor Lukhanyo Mrara said: "What are we trying to achieve? I am not sure about why we are taking cases back to the bargaining council. What we wanted was to bring longstanding suspensions to an end I am very worried about this,” Mrara said.