WILD ACCUSATIONS AT MATSAPHA PROBE?

MATSAPHA – The commission of inquiry into the affairs of Matsapha Town Council started with wild accusations regarding the operations of the council yesterday.

This is more so because the commissioners told both the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Lucky Sukati and Deputy Mayor Siphesihle Sibandze, point blank that the recruitment exercise of the corporate services manager position, which is currently occupied by Princess Kholwaphi was allegedly flouted.
All the submissions made during the inquiry remain allegations as their veracity is yet to be tested.

All parties remain innocent until the findings of the inquiry have been concluded.

Both the CEO and the deputy mayor admitted that there were glaring anomalies in the recruitment process.

Commissioners

Furthermore, the commissioners told the duo that this led to council and the CEO failing to execute their duties as expected and again, they admitted to it.

This transpired during the oral submissions exercise which was held at Matsapha Town Council boardroom yesterday.
During the appearance of the town clerk, he said a consultancy company; AM Recruitment, was tasked with the recruitment exercise.
He said a list of shortlisted candidates (six) was submitted to council.

Thereafter, he alleged that a subcommittee which comprised of Councillors Sandlane Zwane and Bongani Mamba, was elected to sit in during the second phase of the interviews.
“However, later on, another list was issued and it had five more names of candidates who were not on the first one,” he alleged in his submissions.

Again, the CEO also alleged that on the new shortlist, the person who had a high scoring was not on the first list which was issued by the consultancy company.
Thereafter, he alleged that another subcommittee comprising Councillors Musa Ndzimandze, Bongani Mkhatshwa, legal advisor and the town clerk himself, was tasked to analyse the developments.
However, the findings of the commission were that the subcommittee also failed to address the anomaly since the consultancy report had allegedly recommended that council recruit one Emmanuel Simelane, and advised against considering the candidate who was eventually hired.

Again, the commission established that according to the consultancy report, the princess allegedly filed an affidavit instead of an MBA certificate, which according to them, suggested that she was unqualified for the position.
However, Deputy Mayor Siphesihle Sibandze, who was also interrogated on the matter, claimed that the affidavit which was brought forward suggested that the princess did have an MBA certificate but, the challenge was that when it was handed over to her, her name was wrongly spelt, thus it had to be taken back to be corrected.

Recruitment

In his own words, the CEO admitted to the commission that there was a glaring anomaly in the recruitment of the corporate services manager.
 He alleged that this was because the consultancy company had the entire tool to do the recruitment but subcommittees of councillors were allowed to sit in the evaluation process, yet they were supposed to be overseers.
“The anomaly started when the recruitment agency allowed the calling of more candidates to be added to the shortlisted applicants, yet the evaluation exercise ruled them out,” the CEO alleged.

On the same note, the deputy mayor admitted that the interview process was jeopardised and that this led to council not performing its duties as expected.
In total, the CEO alleged that during the period under review, council had eight tenders and he had concerns with three; recruitment of the corporate services manager, legal services and external audit tenders. It is worth noting that the council was found to have also flouted procedure in the other two tenders; legal services and external audit.

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