SowetanLive reports that Tshwane mayor Stevens Mokgalapa's push for the appointment of the metro's acting city manager to be revoked fell flat after a marathon special council meeting on Tuesday.  

Mokgalapa sought council approval to revoke the appointment of chief operations officer James Murphy as the acting accounting officer at a special meeting held in committee.  The rescission was opposed by the ANC, while the EFF demanded to know who was currently acting as the city manager as outgoing Moeketsi Mosola was on leave.  Following heated engagements between councillors, Mokgalapa's request was withdrawn by council despite the mayor having argued that Murphy had been fingered by the auditor-general (AG).  Mokgalapa told council that he had come across a report by the AG, whose recommendations were against the council's decision to appoint Murphy.  Yet, Murphy was cleared by the city's internal audit chief earlier this month, who indicated that the AG's report that Mokgalapa was relying on had been withdrawn.  The report related to allegations that Murphy was named as a person of interest in a probe over donations to NGOs by the city about five years ago.  Mokgalapa blamed the ANC for the collapse of the meeting, saying that the party was against the implementation of the report's recommendations against Murphy.

• Read the full original of the above report by Isaac Mahlangu at SowetanLive

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