Pretoria - The Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) department has published the Municipal Systems Amendment Act Draft Regulations on the appointment and conditions of employment of senior managers in municipalities for comment.
These regulations will deal with the duties, remuneration, benefits and other terms and conditions for senior managers in municipalities. Among the far reaching proposals, the amendment provides that a staff member dismissed for misconduct cannot be re‐employed elsewhere for a certain period of time.
“In essence, the Act sets a moratorium on the re‐employment of such staff by other municipalities. These regulations, once finalised, will prescribe a period that a senior manager may not be employed in a municipality when found guilty of misconduct,” the department said.
Law makers said while the development of a single set of regulations for all categories of municipal employees would have been ideal, it was decided to prioritise the development of regulations for municipal managers and managers directly accountable to municipal managers.
“The draft regulations are an endeavour to set uniform standards for staff establishments and for municipal staff systems and procedures. The organised local government, organised labour and various professional bodies were consulted in the process,” said the department.
The regulations were an important milestone in the development of enforceable competence standards for senior managers and a direct response to challenges in some municipalities where people are employed without the relevant skills, expertise and qualifications.
They will address the weaknesses in recruitment; management and human resources and will go a long way in professionalising the local government sector and achieve the vision espoused in the National Development Plan.
The draft regulations were published in Government Gazette Number 36223 and Notice Number 167 on 7 March 2013 for comments.
They are also available on the website of the Department of Cooperative Governance: www.cogta.gov.za.
All interested parties are requested to e-mail their comments on the draft Regulations to: MSAregulations@cogta.gov.za . – SAnews.gov.za
