Chronicle Editor
Mkhululi Ncube, Chronicle Reporter
BULILIMA Rural District Council (RDC) chief executive officer Mr John Brown Ncube has been sent on one-month special leave as council awaits legal advice following his request to have his contract, which expired on Thursday, renewed.
Mr Ncube has been the CEO of council since 2012. Legally, public entities CEOs can only serve for a maximum of 10 years.
The legal requirement was born out of the 2013 Constitution.
Although, Mr Ncube has clocked a decade at council, he joined a year before the new constitution came into effect, thus leaving his fate to differing legal opinions, hence the RDC’s decision to seek advice.
According to council minutes, there is also opposition to retaining him due to conditions he has set for a renewal: Mr Ncube wants the broke council to buy him a Toyota Fortuner four-wheel drive vehicle, give him 50 litres of fuel as weekly allocation for personal errands, a developed stand or house in Plumtree Town or help him develop/build his stand that he already has in Plumtree Town, among others.
The RDC’s human resources committee has recommended against renewing Mr Brown Ncube’s contract.
Bulilima RDC held a full council meeting on Wednesday and a number of issues, including the matter of the CEO`s contract being part of the agenda.
The meeting was, however, postponed midway when councillors decried receiving the minutes of the indaba late.
They asked for time to read the minutes so that they debate from an informed decision.
Councillors then convened a council in committee meeting which recommended to give the CEO a one-month contract and sent him on special leave with pay and all his benefits, while the RDC awaits legal advice including from lawyers and Ministry of Local Government and Public Works.
The committee also appointed the council’s human resources manager Mr Billiat Nyathi as the acting CEO.Some councilors are, however, said to be unhappy with his leadership.
Chronicle is in possession of the minutes of the committee in which councillors expressed unhappiness over his leadership and some of his demands for the new contract.
“The council in Committee decided to send him on special leave while we determine if he qualifies for renewal should we want to.
But this is due to pressure coming from other quarters otherwise all councillors are clear he must go.
When you are employed and your contract expires it is up to the people who employ you to renew it or not.
You cannot demand that your employer employ you and that is what he is doing,” said a council source who was in the meeting.
A meeting of the human resources committee, which sat on March 24, recommended against renewing Mr Ncube’s contract for various reasons.
“It was noted that the Chief Executive Officer, Mr John Brown Ncube was self-centred where he was only concerned about himself instead of the entire council, employees and councillors.
This was evident in his proposed conditions of service where he puts high expectations which Council may not be able to fulfil if his contract was renewed.
“It was noted that Council had even failed to fulfil most of his contractual obligations from his previous contract (2017–2022) hence, the ones he was proposing were extreme.
It was noted that under his leadership as the CEO for Bulilima RDC, Council was sinking in debts where statutory obligations, employees’ salaries and Councillor’s allowances are in eleven months arrears and have kept increasing at an alarming rate and this had legal implications.
He had not come up with a proper strategy on revenue generation,” said the minutes.
“Council vehicles have been grounded for a long time yet he had been prioritising servicing and repairing his own vehicle at the expense of service vehicles.
Council had been hiring public transport for service delivery of which in some instances, Council was requesting for the vehicles to use for service delivery from Members of Parliament for the Constituencies covered by Bulilima RDC.
“During his tenure, Council failed to buy even a single vehicle.
In many instances, Mr Ncube failed to implement Council resolutions yet in some, he had gone to do some developments without reference to Council resolutions or Committee recommendations leading to serious conflicts within communities.”
The council chairman Mr ZooLake Nyathi confirmed that the CEO`s contract expired yesterday and has been sent on special leave.
“Our CEO’s contract expired yesterday and the council resolved to send him on special leave while waiting for feedback from our parent ministry on some issues before we make a decision.
The same meeting appointed our Human Resources Director as the acting CEO,” he said.
He declined to comment further saying they will be guided by the ministry and legal advice on how to proceed with the contract issue. Mr Ncube`s phone was unreachable yesterday afternoon and WhatsApp messages sent to his phone were not delivered.
– @themkhust
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