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Mkhululi Ncube, Chronicle Reporter
BULILIMA Rural District Council (RDC) councillors last week voted not to renew the expired contract of chief Executive officer, Mr John Brown Ncube, after the expiry of his special leave.
Mr Brown Ncube has since taken council to the Labour Court challenging the non-renewal of his contract.
Bulilima Rural District Council chairman Councillor ZooLakae Nyathi confirmed the development.
Last month, the RDC sent Mr Brown Ncube on one-month special leave as council awaited legal advice following his request to have his contract which had expired, renewed.
Mr Ncube has been council CEO 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 had 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.
A council delegation visited the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works to get clarification on the matter and council says the ministry said the powers to renew or not rested with the council hence the latest decision.
“We had a full council meeting last week and there was an unanimous decision not to renew the CEO’s contract. All councillors supported the recommendation of the Human Resources Committee which was against renewal of his contract. But he has since taken council to Labour Court challenging his dismissal saying it was an unfair practice. The issue will be heard on Friday but from the council’s perspective what is left is to discuss is his gratuities.
“The ministry was clear that we have the powers to make whatever decision we wanted with regards to his contract as we were his employer, not the ministry. The ministry said the issue of the act did not arise since his contract has expired and it was up to us to decide what we wanted,” said Cllr Nyathi.
He said councillors are happy with developments at the council during Mr Brown Ncube’s absence which motivated all councillors to support the decision.
According to last month’s council minutes, there was also opposition to retaining him due to conditions he had set for a renewal: Mr Ncube wanted 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.
“It was noted that under his leadership as the CEO for Bulilima RDC, Council was sinking in debts where statutory obligations, employees’ salaries and councillors’ 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.
“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,” read the minutes.
Meanwhile Plumtree town council secretary Mr Davis Dumezweni Luthe tendered his resignation last week.
Mr Luthe who of late has been in and out of courts over alleged corruption charges wrote a letter advising that he was leaving.
“I hereby tender my resignation from council employment with effect from 30 April 2022. I wish to thank the council for the co-operation and support it has given me for over two decades,” wrote Mr Luthe.
Plumtree Town Council chairperson Clr Fanisani Dube confirmed the decision.
“It’s a pity we finally parted ways with Mr DD Luthe who has served council over 20 years but I am sure it was now time because he was under severe pressure these days due to the numerous court cases he is facing. There are also other cases where council is being sued over the corrupt allocation of stands. He has been working under stress which was affecting his performance.
“While it is sad to lose a senior employee on the other hand it is a blessing in disguise given the fact that if someone has pending cases his performances is severely affected as he was the driver of the local authority. I am sure the residents will take this as a good move as opposed to waiting for all his cases to go through and eventually get dismissed. So as a council we think he made a good move to resign and collect his gratuity and dues. Council has approved his resignation,” he said.
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