THE City of Joburg is refusing to restart the process to appoint Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) chief Patrick Jaca despite demands by the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu).
Jaca’s appointment was approved at a council meeting a few weeks ago and he started his duties on February 1.
However, a few days before the council meeting, Samwu raised objections, stating that the presence of two members of the panel had been flagged by a legal opinion obtained by the municipality and that the advice was that the interviewing panel be re-constituted.
According to the union, it objected to the partial implementation of the recommendations premised on its reasonable apprehension about implicit motivations by the employer.
Samwu added that the inclusion of Vicky Manyathi in the panel clearly confirmed its apprehension as it believes that she is conflicted by her previous interview scoring preferences and would not ordinarily be objective.
”In the interest of fairness and objectivity she ought to have declined the invitation to participate in the exercise. We believe that in the absence of any other secondary conflicting legal opinion, the existing legal opinion has to be fully implemented and any deviating conduct ought to have been a subject of a deviation report that we believe does not exist,” the union explained.
In addition, Samwu objected to the participation of the municipality’s former head of the pubic safety department Hlula Msimang, in the recruitment process.
The union also questioned his credibility and integrity, claiming they are compromised, especially for the recruitment of such a crucial position.
“We demand a proper reconstitution of the interviewing panel which entails the process to be re-started with and a credible, legitimate and transparent interviewing panel,” Samwu maintained.
But the city’s group executive director group corporate and shared services Mbulelo Ruda told the union on January 31 that its’ allegations are unsubstantiated and have no factual or legal basis, that the interview panel will not be reconstituted and the interviews will not be restarted.
”The appointment of the panel including its members’ participation and conduct was in accordance with City of Johannesburg’s regulatory prescripts and practice. There was a full disclosure of interest by all panellists including conducting a rigorous but fair and transparent selection process,” Ruda explained.
He said there was no legal opinion that disqualified Manyathi’s participation as a member of the selection panel for the position of JMPD chief.
Ruda said the cause of complaint to be removed or cured was confined to the previous JMPD boss David Tembe as an expert.
Tembe’s disqualification was based on ex-Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane’s report, which did not affect any other member of the previous panel.
”Your apprehension for a conflict in respect of Manyathi is devoid of any substance and the mere fact that Manyathi was a member of the previous nullified selection panel does not establish on its own reasonable apprehension of a conflict,” Ruda stated.
He said Samwu’s suspicion of bias on the ground of previous membership and scoring is irrational and unreasonable when considering that Manyathi was not the only member reappointed to the reconstituted panel.
On Msimang, the municipality said it never found him guilty of wrongdoing that would make him ineligible to be part of the panel and to provide expert advice to the selection.