Unqualified people can't be fired

These developments follow auditor-general Terence Nombembe's estimate that 70% of municipal officials were not qualified to perform their duties.

Last week President Jacob Zuma's Cabinet expressed its grave concern on the poor quality of the audit results reported by the auditor-general.

"Cabinet directed Richard Baloyi to ensure that municipalities employ qualified chief financial officers at all levels in compliance with the municipal minimum competency requirements," the Cabinet's statement read.

But in a separate development, South African Local Government Association (Salga) chief executive Xolile George told a news conference in Parliament that municipalities had contractual obligations.

He said while employees on fixed-term contracts could be worked out of the system, those on permanent contracts would have to be trained to do their jobs.

"Our appetite is not to fire people but to capacitate them," he said, indicating that attempts would be made to retrain municipal managers and financial managers who were under-qualified.

Baloyi has established a task team to look at conflicts among the laws relating to local government, and 300 sections of some statutes need to be amended.

George said planning laws and environmental laws were problematic, as was the fact that the national government's financial year ran from April to March, while that of local government ran from July to June. There was a need to align the financial years, he said.

Salga chairman Thabo Manyoni agreed, saying some laws were in conflict with each other, making it difficult for municipalities to function effectively.

Source: Business Day via I-Net Bridge