The ANC denied forcing councillor Paul Notyawa to withdraw his candidacy for the post of municipal manager only a day after he was unanimously recommended by the Makana Council for the position.
The ANC denied forcing councillor Paul Notyawa to withdraw his candidacy for the post of municipal manager only a day after he was unanimously recommended by the Makana Council for the position.
According to sources close to Notyawa the reason for his unexpected move was political interference.
ANC heavyweights in town just a day after Notyawa was recommended had allegedly put pressure on him to pull out of the race for the top job.
Sources claim that in a confidential meeting, Notyawa was told the ANC would not work with someone who was linked to organisations in opposition to the ANC.
Notyawa is accused of having close ties with the newly formed United Front, led by former local ANC head Lungile Mxube.
Mxube is the former deputy chairperson of the ANC in the Cacadu region and is also a former director of corporate services in Makana Municipality.
He was fired in 2003 for gross insubordination by then municipal manager Pravine Naidoo after he refused to follow Naidoo's instruction to stop an investigation of maladministration and corruption involving R2 million against employees in the electricity department.
According to Mxube, last week's order against Notyawa came after Mayor Zamuxolo Peter went to the provincial headquarters of the ANC in King William's Town to lobby ANC leaders against Notyawa.
"He left halfway through the ordinary council meeting on Thursday and went to Calata House to tell the leadership that he won't work with Notyawa," Mxube told Grocott's Mail.
Notyawa's battle with the Mayor dates back to the 2011 Local Government Elections when the two went head to head for the position of Mayor.
Peter won and Notyawa was made a mayoral committee member.
Notyawa, who is an advocate of the High Court of South Africa, advised the Council against Naidoo's appointment, while Peter was organising the Council to endorse the move.
Naidoo had failed several times in his application to get the Council to re appoint him after his term ended in 2007.
Notyawa has a B.Proc degree, LLB and a National Diploma in Education Law.
The ANC has denied forcing Notyawa to withdraw his candidacy for the municipal manager post.
Speaking to Grocott's Mail this week, ANC regional secretary Scara Njadayi said Notyawa had withdrawn of his own accord.
"Comrade Notyawa has written to the African National Congress and to the administrator advising that he was declining the nomination," Njadayi said.
He denied that Notyawa was bulldozed into withdrawing his candidacy.
Njadayi said there had never been an instruction from the ANC to Notyawa to step down and that no meeting with Local Government MEC Fikile Xasa and Water Affairs and Sanitation Minister Nomvula Mokonyane had taken place.
Notyawa sparked controversy in 2012 when he was working as a full time mayoral committee member while drawing a stipend as a lawyer for the South African Democratic Teachers Union.
His detractors labelled him a double parker.
He stalled an investigation into the incident by answering questions using deep Xhosa idiomatic expressions.
The task team of investigators led by ANC chief whip Julia Wells struggled to decipher Notyawa's words.
Numerous phone calls to Notyawa for comment remained unanswered at the time of going to print.
