Pretoria - The Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, has dismissed with costs an urgent application brought up by fired Tshwane chief financial officer (CFO) Umar Banda, who wanted a decision to terminate his contract to be nullified.
Banda’s contract was set to expire on December 31, but municipal manager Johann Mettler terminated it on December 2.
It transpired in court that Mettler fired him for financial misconduct after his misrepresentation of the City’s 2021/22 financial statements submitted to the auditor-general.
The court found that it could not be of assistance to the applicant at this juncture on the basis that it had no jurisdiction to hear the matter.
Judge Mashudu Munzhelele said: “What is at stake is the decision taken by the municipal manager; that decision to be set aside there needs to be the following of the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act.”
Banda, who was hired on a five-year fixed-term contract in 2017, claimed Mettler terminated his contract without providing him with reasons for doing so.
Council resolved to extend his contract on two occasions after it expired in June this year. According to him, Mettler made a submission to the council to extend his contract for a third time on a month-to-month basis for no longer than three months from January 1, 2023 to March 31, 2023.
Banda’s legal counsel argued that Mettler wanted to render invalid a November 24 council resolution “through the back door”. The resolution gave effect to the extension of Banda’s contract until December 31.
The legal representative said Mettler should have approached the court to set aside council resolutions regarding the extension of Banda’s contract if he wanted immediate termination.
“It is also his right to work. The monetary amount that has been given doesn’t remedy the unfair dismissal,” the legal counsel said.
City’s legal representative argued that a resolution shouldn’t be treated as a contract as suggested by Banda’s lawyers. The City counsel said there ought to have been a written contract in place when Banda was installed in the position as acting CFO.
According to the counsel, the resolution was made to simply empower the city manager to do something.
Judge Munzhelele said there was no need for her to deal with the issue of whether a resolution constituted a contract in light of the ruling to dismiss the application.
On December 1, Banda received a correspondence from Mettler indicating that he was suspended “for allegations related to the submission of the first respondent’s annual financial statements to the auditor-general”.
Mettler is expected to submit a report to council regarding Banda’s dismissal during a sitting in January.
Pretoria News