At least six officials who were suspended by the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality are expected to return to work next week.
The council gave the nod at Thursday’s council meeting for human resources director Chris Jamda and supply chain official Sox Nkanjeni, among others, to report for duty.
Also to return to work are the four public health officials who are implicated in an explosive tender-rigging report about a waste management contract.
The officials, environmental services director Joram Mkosana, project manager Thabo Williams, former executive director Andile Tolom and then-acting waste management director Nkosinathi Dolo, were implicated in the Milongani Eco-Consulting forensic report by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).
They were accused of fraud, collusion and tender rigging.
Nkanjeni and Jamda were fired for misconduct.
In a confidential report tabled at Thursday’ s council meeting, acting city manager Peter Neilson wrote that this was a means of providing a final internal multidisciplinary approach to the suspensions, some of which have gone on for nearly four years.
But ANC, UDM, AIC, UF and EFF councillors overturned Neilson’s recommendations regarding some of the suspended officials and ruled that the recommendation by the attorney reviewing the cases – Kuban Chetty – be set aside and that instead the council should make up its own mind.
The review committee had resolved that Mkosana, Tolom, Williams and Dolo should remain on suspension and that the municipality should proceed with disciplinary action against them.
But the majority of councillors at the meeting ignored this and decided that they should return to work instead.
On Friday, Neilson confirmed that the officials would come back but said this would be only after administrative processes were concluded.
“Their letters of reinstatement will reflect that they returned to work on March 1, but administrative processes have to be undertaken,” Neilson said.
ACDP councillor Lance Grootboom said he was concerned that the new coalition intended bringing back officials who were implicated in serious offences.
“This is the working of mayor [Mongameli] Bobani.
“He wants to bring back his old pals. He wants to bring them back because he knows that they are obedient and their allegiance is with him.
“The good officials in the institution who do not want to be corrupt or do things illegally, they are the ones he wants to get rid of because they are the stumbling block for his agenda to loot the city.”
Patriotic Alliance councillor Marlon Daniels said he could not support Bobani’s motion because he felt the opinion was not independent.
In his opinion, Daniels said, he felt this compromised whatever decision was taken.
“This supports my view that Bobani wants certain people to come back so that he can loot the city. He has sinister motives and therefore this was not independent,” Daniels said.
DA councillor Nqaba Bhanga said the decision was shocking and that Bobani was breaking the city down.
Bobani said he was not settling any political scores by bringing back suspended officials but was simply trying to save taxpayers’ money.
“We can’t continue paying two people for one position while another sits at home collecting an income,” Bobani said.