Dr Pravine Naidoo has returned to Makana municipality to take over as municipal manager, a position he occupied until roughly six years ago.
Dr Pravine Naidoo has returned to Makana municipality to take over as municipal manager, a position he occupied until roughly six years ago.
One of his old arch-enemies, Prof Michael Whisson, is quoted in the most recent edition of Grocott's Mail as welcoming Naidoo back to City Hall because he believes that after a stint at the Drakenstein Municipality as Executive Director: Strategic Services, Naidoo has come back even better than before.
Whisson has good reason to believe that Naidoo will do a great job. Since he left Makana under somewhat controversial circumstances, Naidoo has notched up some remarkable achievements that are relevant to his post.
He has received a second doctorate (Commerce) in international strategic management and leadership models in local government and he has written a book entitled Quality service delivery – A conceptual and reference guide for South African municipalities.
It is no wonder that after the interviews for the job, one of the panellists said that Naidoo stood head and shoulders above the other candidates.
Naidoo certainly has the qualifications and the experience for the job – surely everyone should be thrilled with his return. We need someone who is knowledgeable enough to write a book on quality service delivery at municipal level.
So why then have some people at City Hall suddenly become looking so tetchy? We do not know, because they are not talking to us.
Even Naidoo is not talking to us.
We have requested several times to have an interview with him because we believe that the residents of Makana deserve to know what his plans are.
The municipal manager in a municipality is the highest official in the administration and he, or she, can shape the way an entire municipality develops.
In recent years, the Makana municipality has not been well run. Our newsroom receives several calls a day about burst pipes, potholes and water outages.
Why do they call the newspaper and not the relevant department?
The stock answer from residents is that they get no response from the municipality, or that promises are never kept.
Out of frustration, they call Grocott’s Mail.
We want to ask the new municipal manager how he intends to rectify the many failings of the current administration.
