Lukhwareni, a DA appointed member who was appointed by previous regime of former DA leader in Joburg Herman Mashaba, has been used as a scapegoat -so believes the Democratic Alliance.
As a result, CoJ speaker Nonceba Molwele today called and subsequently cancelled an urgent council meeting on Thursday morning after apparently reaching a settlement regarding city manager Ndivhoniswani impending resignation.
“The Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg, Cllr Geoffrey Makhubo, has today received and approved a leave request from the City Manager of the City.
In line with the standard practices and policy in the City, the City Manager has appointed Mr. Floyd Brink, the Chief Operations Officer of the City, to act in his absence.
Allegations and rumours that the City Manager has resigned or has been coerced to do so are untrue,” read the statement rebuffing the resignation.
According to one source, the city manager “offered to resign” and was in talks to receive a settlement to end his contract which, according to the source, was a few months away from ending. This after some councillors complained that his performance was “unsatisfactory” and he was found “unsuitable for the job during his last performance assessment”.
Shortly before the meeting was expected to convene, another source – a councillor – said at least one political party was preparing a statement related to the matter, but would not say whether the Lukhwareni had officially submitted his resignation.
The Democratic Party- caucus leader Leah Knott believes the City Manager was used as a scapegoat for ANC and its R400m corrupt Covid-19 related contracts.
Knott and the DA caucus believed the ANC caucus wanted Lukhwareni out to cover up Covid-19 related corruption.
“We hope that the city manager is not being made to take the fall for the mayor’s failings. The DA will not allow for any golden-handshake deal which attempts to absolve anyone in the executive of their role in the city’s Covid-19 corruption scandal.”
