Sunday Times Daily reports that three top acting municipal appointments in the Western Cape have been set aside in a matter of weeks for being unlawful.

Knysna municipality’s decision to appoint Londiwe Sotshede as acting CFO was last week found to be unlawful by the High Court in Cape Town because she lacked the required qualifications and the appointment contravened the Municipal Systems Act. The municipality also failed to apply to the provincial MEC of local government to extend the acting period of the position. The court furthermore nullified the municipality’s decision to appoint Luvuyo Loliwe as acting director of corporate services. The municipality had argued that certain regulations only applied to permanent senior manager appointments, but this was rejected. In April, the same court overturned the appointment of former Beaufort West mayor Truman Prince as acting municipal manager of the Central Karoo District municipality. Though Prince had the necessary academic qualifications for the post he did not have the required five years’ experience at a senior management level. Provincial local government MEC Anton Bredell welcomed the judgments and commented on Wednesday: “We need people with the right qualifications to work in our local governments. These requirements are clearly stipulated in legislation, and municipalities cannot ignore it when making appointments.”

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Philani Nombembe at TimesLIVE Premium (subscriber access only)

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