The settlement negotiations between the Matatiele Local Municipality and the former Municipality Manager Dr Tsepang Nakin have been settled and Dr nakin has been fully furnished with all that’s due to him by the Municipality, said the Acting Municipal Manager Dr Vuyo Mlokothi. Dr Mlokothi was speaking in an interview with The Informer newspaper this week. He was responding to the news that Dr Nakin is again taking the municipality to court demanding payments of all his dues and interdicting the recruitment processes of the new municipal manager. “One of the tasks that I was instructed to deal with in this municipality is to facilitate settlement negotiations between Dr Nakin and the Municipality. We set on two meetings discussing his matter until we came to an agreement which was signed by his lawyers and the Matatiele Local Municipality. In an agreement, a sum of R4,3 million taxable according to the laws of the country was to be paid to Dr Nakin’s bank account, and all that was done. Therefore, based on that, we do not owe him anything. However him going back to court came as an astonishment to me and I must mention that I have not yet received any legal papers from him and his lawyers”, Dr Mlokothi said. Responding to the issue of the security strike, guards seem to be creating another instability in the municipality, he said the problem is with, security guards employed by KSA whose contract with the municipality had just ended on the 19th of June 2020. These guards demand that they be absorbed by the newly appointed company, Ubilo Security Company. “That could not happen as it was not a requirement of the tender document. We then as the municipality requested the High Court to interdict those guards and we succeeded.” Mlokothi went on to say there is nothing to worry about. Meanwhile the municipality has requested the High Court to enforce the arbitration award against Lube Construction Company with the aim of recouping a sum R22 million after the company defaulted while hired to construct the new council chambers. Commenting about the closure of the traffic offices due to the identification of the Covid-19 case Dr Mlokothi said all the Covid-19 regulations should be followed before the offices start operating again. On the other hand the municipality has taken the plant which was lying rotten for months to repairs so that it can come back and be utilised for rural roads. “The Municipality is going to spend more than R200 000.00 in those repairs”, concluded Dr Mlokothi.
