It seems as if the Polokwane City Council has had enough of their wayward Municipal Manager.

At a council meeting this afternoon, Adv Letsepe Thubakgale was suspended pending an investigation into his handling of municipal affairs. The decision to suspend Thubakgale was unanimous.

The Executive Mayor, Thabo Makunyane said in his motivation of the proposal, that a municipal manager was an accounting officer and employee of the council. However, Thubakgale acted as if he was a politician.

Waste

Makunyane said in the past three years, much resources were wasted on managing the conflict created by Thubakgale. He undermined service delivery by, amongst a number of other things, not implementing a performance management system as instructed by council, his financial administration lead to as much as R68 000 000 being spent without council approval on the International Convention Centre and R5 000 000 was taken from other votes and used without authorisation.

Money allocated for preparations for the 2010 Soccer World Cup was not spent which lead to Polokwane being put on a critical list and thereby jeopardising the hosting of the 2010 World Cup games in Polokwane.

Letter of suspension

Makunyane gave Thubakgale a letter the morning before the Council meeting, asking him to give reasons why he should not be suspended. Thubakgale read the letter, refused to sign an acknowledgement of receipt and did not reply to it.

Makunyane said the city needed strong leadership especially with 2010 around the corner.

An investigation into Thubakgale's conduct will now be held.

Makunyane wins

This is probably the beginning of the end for the Municipal Manager and signals his defeat by Makunyane in a fight that cost Polokwane dearly on both financial and service delivery fronts.

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