Municipal official Bernhadt Lamour has stepped down as acting executive director for the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality’s electricity and energy department.
Lamour had been acting in the position for a year, acting city manager Peter Neilson said.
He has been replaced by acting electricity and energy senior director Luvuyo Magalela.
The temporary appointment is expected to be tabled at the next council meeting on January 25.
The move by Lamour comes as the city is faced with four municipal departments without executive directors.
The situation is exacerbated by the contracts of some executive directors coming to an end between April and June 2019.
Council on December 4 resolved to advertise the vacancies immediately.
Neilson, however, said the vacancies would only be advertised by the end of January.
The electricity and energy department has been without an executive director for nearly three years.
Other critical vacancies the city has not filled include the chief financial officer and executive directors for public health and corporate services.
The municipality in October lost R50m in grant funding due to its failure to appoint a chief financial officer.
Neilson said the vacancies and extended acting tenures hampered the city’s ability to make strategic long-term decisions.
“That is how bad everything has been with filling [critical vacancies],” Neilson said.
“If you think about it, the electricity and energy department has not had an executive director for the past three years.
“The effectiveness of an acting person, irrespective of what the thought process is, is never the same as a permanent person,” he said.
“When acting, you can’t make long-term decisions, strategic planning can’t happen and annual budgeting becomes difficult,” Neilson said.
“The reality is that a person who is acting can never have the same impact as a permanent incumbent.
“In most cases the acting incumbent may not have the necessary skills set to be in the acting position.”
Neilson said it was unclear why advertising the vacancies had been delayed.
Co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Fikile Xasa said the city would have to explain why it had missed the September deadline to fill the critical vacancies.
“We encourage all municipalities to fill all . . . critical vacancies – it is unacceptable that we have municipalities with critical vacancies that have not been filled.
“The municipality will have to explain why they have not filled critical vacancies. We gave them a deadline for September. At this point we can only follow up and hear their explanation,” Xasa said.
Lamour declined to comment on the matter.