Four days after proposing that the Nelson Mandela Bay council appoint Lonwabo Ngoqo as the metro's new city manager, UDM has made a U-turn and withdrawn its support for him.
The party's Bay spokesperson Yongama Zigebe said the UDM had initially thought that all due diligence had been done and that Ngoqo was beyond reproach.
However, Zigebe said the party had since learnt that Ngoqo had a record of previous acts of misconduct.
“In light of this information, the UDM officially withdraws its support for Ngoqo as the party cannot be involved in the appointment of a city manager with previous records of financial misconduct,” he said.
Ngoqo, a former Bitou municipal manager, was voted in as city manager during a late-night meeting on Thursday.
He was given the nod by a majority of councillors after a UDM motion of exigency rescinded the appointment of Noxolo Nqwazi as city manager.
Nqwazi has since turned to the courts to stop the appointment. Her urgent application will be heard in the Gqeberha high court on Tuesday
“The UDM has called on the mayor to not go ahead with the appointment and or contractual obligations for Ngoqo as this may have dire consequences of wasteful expenditure on the municipality thereby dampening all efforts of service delivery,” Ngoqo said.
The Herald's sister newspaper, Weekend Post, reported on Saturday that Ngoqo had brought with him controversial baggage to the job after being fired in Bitou several years ago, along with his sudden resignation from the same Garden Route municipality in 2021.
Ngoqo was axed as the municipal manager in 2012 after he was found guilty on four charges of misconduct when the municipality paid R23m for a piece of land valued at only R2.4m.
He was hired back in 2019 as the municipal manager, but his appointment was set aside by the labour court and labour appeal court.
Meanwhile, AIM councillor Khusta Jack said during the interview process Ngoqo had disclosed that he previously had a “brush with the law”.
“We voted for Lonwabo Ngoqo because he has the skills, the experience and qualifications for the position.
“Advice from experts is that he has served out the 10-year exclusion sanction for senior managers provided for in public service regulations and is therefore eligible for appointment,” Jack said.
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