Local ANC leaders claim there's a 'malicious agenda' behind moonlighting accusations against councillor Paul Notyawa.
This comes as Notyawa has agreed to leave his job as a lawyer to focus on his full-time job in the Makana Council.
Local ANC leaders claim there's a 'malicious agenda' behind moonlighting accusations against councillor Paul Notyawa.
This comes as Notyawa has agreed to leave his job as a lawyer to focus on his full-time job in the Makana Council.
Notyawa sparked controversy last year when councillors complained that he was frequently absent from Council meetings.
DA Chief Whip Xolani Madyo wrote a letter to council Speaker Rachel Madinda-Isaac, claiming that the only committee meetings Notyawa attended were the ones he chaired.
Confirming rumours that he was working as a lawyer for two trade unions in addition to his full-time job as a councillor, Notyawa spoke out last year for the first time about his alleged 'double-parking'.
In an interview with Grocott's Mail in October, he described a Council investigation led by Councillor Julie Wells into his alleged breach of code of conduct as a "rough tackle" and said no crime had been committed.
After the DA's objections, the Makana council set up a task team to investigate Notyawa's alleged breach of code of conduct.
But the probe stalled over Notyawa's insistence on communicating in isiXhosa. "The task team's request was that he simply tell us what the content of [Notyawa's] letter [explaining his position]was so that we could discuss it then and there was rejected. Cllr Notyawa further insisted that he would only speak to the task team on the condition that he speak in his mother tongue and that an official interpreter be provided and that all proceedings should be officially recorded," Wells wrote in her report to Council.
Now the Regional Chairperson of the ANC in its Sara Baartman region (Cacadu) Scara Njadayi says Notyawa told him in December of his intention to resign as a lawyer for the South African Democratic Teachers' Union (Sadtu).
"We are yet to receive his resignation letter from the Chief Whip," Njadayi told Grocott's Mail on Wednesday. "He indicated that he was resigning as a lawyer for the trade union and would take his full-time position as councillor in Makana Municipality. "We appreciate what comrade Notyawa has done and we hope with his resources he will help in translating the mandate of the ANC caucus in Makana."
Njadayi said they had not yet received Notyawa's letter, because he was involved in an accident last year and was still on sick leave. The municipality, however, has kept mum on the matter. In November, Council gave him 30 days to choose between being a councillor or a lawyer for Sadtu. His deadline for the decision was 3 December.
Former deputy regional chairperson of the ANC in the region, Lungile Mxube, who was instrumental in Notyawa's deployment to Council, claims the municipality's silence proves their decision was wrong.
"Notyawa was head-hunted by the ANC and the alliance, because we said we needed somebody with a legal background. This decision was informed by the fact that the municipality spent a lot of money on legal matters which could have been addressed internally.
"We are not protecting him. If he is on the wrong side of the law then the law must take its course – but the malicious agenda that he is corrupt is because they are threatened by his presence in council," Mxube said.
During his interview with Grocott's Mail last year, Notyawa said when Council solicited him to be a Mayoral Committee member, they knew his position.
He said he had sent a letter to the municipal manager declaring he was the legal counsel for Cosatu and Sadtu in the province. "They appointed me as the Mayoral Committee member [despite]my declaration, revoking their right to withdraw me. All I can think of this is about playing dirty politics, they are tackling the man instead of the ball and they are supposed to tackle the ball to the goalpost."
