By Sisho Magagula | 2018-06-14

THE shoe is now on the other foot at the Mbabane Municipal Council.

Former mayor and councillor Sikhatsi Dlamini has been suspended from the municipality for allegedly abusing its name.

Dlamini, a ward four councillor, has been suspended through a formal communiqué authored by current Mayor Zaphaniah Nkambule dated June 12, 2018.

His suspension comes hardly two months after the suspension of the municipality’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Gideon Mhlongo who was put on ice in April but later re-instated after it was discovered that the suspension had been irregular.

At the time of the CEO’s purported suspension, Sikhatsi was the mayor.

According to mayor Nkambule’s correspondence, Sikhatsi’s suspension will run for two months, effective from yesterday.

The suspension comes in the form of a sentence meted by the mayor after Dlamini was taken to a disciplinary hearing.

Giving a background to the matter, Mayor Nkambule said during its special meeting on April 24, 2018, Council resolved that Sikhatsi should be charged for having written a ‘harsh’ letter to the CEO where he wrongfully implicated Council as having requested for the CEO’s employment contract when in fact there was no such resolution.

“Councillor Dlamini did not have the right to issue such instructions purportedly from the Council since he was a Mayor in Council and not an Executive Mayor. The Council resolved that he should be disciplined for this act. Councillor Sikhatsi Dlamini was charged for wrongfully misrepresenting the Council and using harsh and unprofessional language in the letter he wrote to the CEO which stated that the Council wanted the CEO to supply it with his contract of employment,” he said.

Nkambule accused Dlamini of having misused the name of Council in his quest to obtain the CEO’s contract.

“The Council had not then demanded for the contract but he (councillor Dlamini) wanted the contract and misused the name of the Council in the process of demanding it. He would have gotten the contract without having to abuse the name of the Council. It is considered wrong, unethical and unprofessional to misuse the name of the Council, hence the Council felt that he should be disciplined,” he said.

When called last evening, Dlamini confirmed having received the suspension letter from the municipality.  He, however, declined to elaborate any further and referred further questions to Council. He said for now, he needed time to carefully scrutinise the letter before taking the next step, if any.

share story          

Post Your Comments Below

---