PROBE UNDERWAY FOLLOWING SUSPENSION OF CITY MANAGER

By Staff Reporter

BLOEMFONTEIN- Suspension of Mangaung Municipal Manager Advocate Tankiso Mea paves way for investigation of a string of misconduct and maladministration allegations against him.

The City spokesperson Qondile Khedama said his suspension derived from an investigation  process already taken way back.

“The council of Mangaung had already instigated investigations, so what you saw the shutdown and the interventions of the province was just a culmination of the process that has been started. All that was supposed to happen was to make it through the processes of the council and of the law’’.

Khedama said other issues that were brought forward was irregular expenditure in the city and all pressures that comes with the grievances by some of the stakeholders.  

Mea was suspended by Mangaung council during a special sitting on Friday after 62 councillors voted in favour of the motion to suspend him  while 29 voted against.

Teboho Maine has since been elected to act as new municipal manager.

Mea’s suspension came from a pressure from  Mangaung Shutdown protest, that  brought the city to a halt. During the protest a teenager was shot by a 57 year old security guard who was trying to scare away the protesters from gaining access into the warehouse. He was arrested and release on bail of R1000 and expected to appear back on June 9 to allow him get a legal representative after declining  representation from Legal Aid. So far 70 protesters have been arrested for public violence.

Disgruntled residents were complaining about corruption, lack of service delivery, and a high rate of unemployment.

The Free State MEC for Cooperative Governance (Cogta), Thembeni Nxangisa, has told leaders of the Mangaung Shutdown protest action that the alleged irregular employment of employees at the Metro will be investigated.

This follows grievances tabled by protest leaders that the Bloemfontein based Metro has irregularly employed outsiders whilst chucking local residents.

During the briefing on the update of the protests following a meeting with Premier Sisi Ntombela and other leaders, Nxagisa said the alleged irregular employment of 120 employees will be scrutinised.

He  further revealed that they are expecting to  receive a report on Tuesday 25 May regarding the investigation into awarded contracts.