Tshwane city manager willing to comply with investigations amid reports he may have been appointed irregularly
Cooperative Governance MEC Jacob Mamabolo recently wrote to the capital, flagging some irregularities around the appointments of some of its senior managers.
At a media briefing in Pretoria on Thursday, Mettler addressed some of the speculation
Section 56 managers are senior employees whose appointments have to be approved by the council.
Mettler's appointment was approved by the Tshwane council in July 2022, when the Democratic Alliance-led coalition was still in the majority.
The appointments of Mettler and six other section 56 managers hired during the DA-led coalition era are now facing scrutiny.
Mettler said that from his point of view, he was appointed through a public and transparent process.
"How the city employed me is for the city to answer and anything that would have happened in the past must be investigated, and I would welcome any investigation; I will give my full co-operation with any investigation."
The DA in Tshwane has accused the African National Congress-led coalition government of trying to replace the section 56 managers with "cadre deployments".
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TimesLIVE
7 hours ago
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Parties support Nkabane's education vote, staying out of ANC/DA spat
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Before the firing, they were singing praises about the GNU, today they want to behave like an opposition. The people of South Africa are not stupid and can see through your lies. We are not going to waste time on this fake fight between the DA and the ANC. 'The DA will vote for this budget which funds each and every department, including the department of higher education and human settlements. The DA's narrative is a deliberate distortion at best and sheer ignorance at worst. The EFF has been at the forefront of confronting the crisis at higher education even when those who are making the most noise now stood on the sidelines.' The highly anticipated higher education budget vote took place in the mini plenary of the National Assembly on Thursday. Lonzi told the plenary the EFF will not fall for the propaganda of the DA that it can support certain budgets and not other departments, clarifying that the DA's stance is not going to be effective. 'There are four key budget votes in parliament. The first is the fiscal framework and revenue proposals which gives budget bills the blueprint and sets the economic policy direction, which the DA voted in support of. "The second is the division of revenue bill which deals with the appropriation of national and provincial government, the DA voted in support and it passed. "We are now dealing with the appropriations bill which allocates funds to government departments and programmes — the DA cannot cherry pick. Voting for the appropriation bill means approving the entire budget inclusive of all the departments.' Lonzi gave the minister seven steps to turn around the embattled education sector, which included the 'fixing' of NSFAS or complete removal of the controversial institution. 'You must rescue higher education from the collapse. There should be no reason NSFAS still struggles to pay students. We have about 19-million people on SASSA and an additional 9-million people receiving the R350 grant every single month. NSFAS only deals with an odd one-million students, why is there no efficient payment system that will pay students, institutions and accommodation directly?' He added that the minister ought to blacklist corrupt board members. 'You must clean up the SETAs. You must blacklist corrupt board members and CEOs, not this thing you are doing now where when someone is suspended in one SETA, you take them [into] another SETA,' he said. DA MP Karabo Khakhau who led the charge against Nkabane said she was not surprised by Nkabane's actions, saying that it is a result of the culture of the political party that has deployed her. 'To them, corruption is their daily bread. Living in a corruption-free South Africa is a threat against the very core of their existence. Unlike the other political parties who have today pledged their support to this budget under Nkabane, the DA has not forgotten about the people of this country. 'Our loyalty remains to nothing but the people. South Africa can count on the DA to fight for them and for justice against corruption. The real enemy of progress against young people is Nkabane - it is the ANC for protecting her and corruption, it is President Ramaphosa for refusing to fire her, it is the political parties that think R142bn is safe in the hands of Dr Nkabane.' She told Nkabane that she should voluntarily vacate office if she feels strongly about serving the young people of this country. 'Committing fraud under statutory offence under section 26 of the Powers, Privileges and Immunities of Parliament Act is not only spitting on the graves of the forefathers of this democracy, but it is spitting in the faces if the young people whom you've failed to lead. 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He urged the ministry to prioritise access to higher education to fully commit to the transformation of the country. 'From a capacity point of view, it's clear that infrastructure build in higher education is poor. We are talking about a shortage of 500,000 beds in this country. If we are going to see the doors of learning open, as is the ambition, we need to fund the capacity thereof. 'It's now common cause that NSFAS is not an efficient institution for managing how many students we want to get in. It's either we reform NSFAS or we shut out the middle man.' Rise Mzansi's Makashule Gana told the committee that he refuses to take part in the scandal and spectacle that has brought attention to the ministry. 'Education, especially higher education, is not a luxury, it is a path out of poverty and is the foundation of a prosperous nation. The department's R142bn budget is substantial but not enough, because our crisis is not just funding — its spatial, access, and a system that is failing the poor. "Nowhere is that failure more glaring than in NSFAS. I'm a product of it, many of us are, but what we see today is heartbreaking because hyenas and tenderpreneurs are circling what should be a lifeline for our students. That R95bn for NSFAS has to go to students, not middlemen.' Despite the minister conceding that there is a R1.4bn deficit in the universities' budget, she vowed that the NSFAS budget would 'not be sufficient to meet the growing demand for access to higher education". NSFAS funding sits at R48.7bn this year, with further increases planned in the coming years. Nkabane's budget covered key higher education sectors, detailing that TVET colleges are to receive R14bn, up from R13.1bn last year. The combined allocation for Sector Education and Training Authorities and the National Skills Fund is R26bn. Meanwhile, university education rises from R91.7bn in 2024 to R96bn this year alone.
eNCA
8 hours ago
- eNCA
US Supreme Court to weigh transgender athlete bans
The US Supreme Court agreed on Thursday to wade into the hot-button issue of transgender athletes in girls and women's sports. The court said it would hear a case next term challenging state laws in Idaho and West Virginia banning transgender athletes from female competition. More than two dozen US states have passed laws in recent years barring athletes who were assigned male at birth from taking part in girls or women's sports. The conservative-dominated Supreme Court's decision to hear the case comes two weeks after it upheld a Tennessee law banning gender-affirming medical treatment for transgender minors. The Supreme Court has also recently backed a move by President Donald Trump, who campaigned on the issue of transgender athletes, to have transgender troops dismissed from the military. Trump issued an executive order in February aimed at banning transgender athletes from girls and women's sports. "From now on women's sports will be only for women," Trump said. "With this executive order the war on women's sports is over." The executive order allows federal agencies to deny funding to schools that allow transgender athletes to compete on girls or women's teams. In a high-profile case, the University of Pennsylvania agreed this week to ban transgender athletes from its women's sports teams, settling a federal civil rights case stemming from the furor around swimmer Lia Thomas. The Department of Education said that UPenn had entered into a resolution agreement vowing to comply with Title IX, the federal law which prohibits sex-based discrimination in any educational program. It follows an investigation by the department's Office for Civil Rights which found the university had violated Title IX by allowing transgender swimmer Thomas to compete in women's competitions. Thomas became a lightning rod around the debate over transgender athletes in women's sport after competing in female collegiate competitions in 2022. She had earlier swam on UPenn's men's team while undergoing hormone replacement therapy. Critics and some fellow swimmers said she should not have been allowed to compete against women due to an unfair physiological advantage. The Idaho case accepted by the Supreme Court stems from the Republican-led state's "Fairness in Women's Sports Act." It was challenged by an athlete at an Idaho university and lower courts ruled that it violates the equal protection clause of the Constitution. The West Virginia case was challenged by a middle school student who was not allowed to compete for the girls' track team. An appeals court ruled that the ban was a violation of Title IX. The Supreme Court will hear the case during the term beginning in October and issue a ruling next year.
TimesLIVE
10 hours ago
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You should have withdrawn from GNU: Mbeki's open letter to Steenhuisen
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