Durban — Ravi Pillay’s imminent appointment as the mayor of the Ugu District Municipality has hit a snag after it was apparently blocked by the ANC national leadership, which reminded the province that there must be interviews first.
The Daily News reported last week that Pillay was set to become the mayor of the southern coastal district municipality in KwaZulu-Natal.
Various sources said the provincial and regional leadership had almost finished the process to appoint him, but national leadership blocked the automatic appointment, reminding the province it did not have powers to appoint mayors without them being interviewed first. This means that the province after receiving three names from the region must submit them to the national ANC leadership in Luthuli, which will then convene a panel to interview the candidates.
While regional ANC spokesperson Wendy Mqadi refused to be drawn into the appointment except to say the matter was still with the provincial working committee of the party, ANC provincial spokesperson Mafika Mndebele confirmed that the process was almost complete according to the province, but national leadership reminded them of the standing policy that there must be interviews of the candidates before the appointment.
“Yes, we were almost done on our side as the province, having received three names, but now we need to wait for the national process as the ANC has taken a resolution that mayors must now go for interviews, so we are at that stage now,” said Mndebele.
He refused to divulge the three names, saying once the process was completed the party would make an announcement.
Another source who was at the regional leadership meeting on Friday said Pillay was no longer a choice of the regional leadership after putting conditions on his appointment.
Pillay was said to have told the leadership that he would not want to be micromanaged and wanted to have a say in the appointment of the municipal manager since he did not want the one who will be politically deployed.
This was according to a source who was at the meeting, saying this angered the regional leadership, who withdrew its support for him. In the process of appointment of a mayor, the regional structure was also accused of purging councillors who supported President Cyril Ramaphosa’s second-term bid in the conference last year.
One of the councillors whom the leadership has taken a decision to sack said if these changes were informed by the poor performance and were not political, the leadership should remove fire the entire executive, not the selected individuals.
“We do not understand why us only and not others, which is why we have this assumption that we are being targeted because we did not support the candidate that was favoured by the region and the province,” said the councillor.
The party’s regional spokesperson, Mqadi, again refused to comment on the allegations.
Attempts to reach Pillay were unsuccessful.
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