Joburg appoints a new city manager

 

Nie Cele

Oupa Kekana

 

The Democratic Alliance (DA)  in  Jozi is slowly making sure that  all departments in the municipality are controlled and run by  highly educated,  trusted  rank and file members.

This comes after a big announcement was made that Dr Ndivhoniswani Lukhwareni  has been appointed the new City Manager.

 

Dr Lukhwareni will succeed outgoing Trevor Fowler whose extended contract lapses soon.  Primarily the DA was supposed to put their preferred incumbent immediately after the recent local government elections. But insiders told this newspaper that they didn’t have capacity to fill up some of these high profile vacancies.

 

According to  a statement released by the Mayor’ s office, Herman Mashaba, Johannesburg City Council  apparently  unanimously approved the appointment of Dr Lukhwareni as the new City Manager.

 

The Mayor also said, Council approved the appointment following a process that was initiated on 13 September 2016.

 

“A panel was convened and an exhaustive search began. This process focused on the legal requirements of the position, applicable managerial experience and ability to grasp the new administrations vision.”

 

He also pointed that a number of excellent candidates emerged, however the panel was unanimous in their support of Dr Lukhwareni as the preferred candidate. This panel was constituted on the basis of legislation, which included the Executive Mayor, an external independent expert, the EFF Caucus Leader and an ACDP Councillor.”

 

 

The Mayor also revealed that during the process he was impressed by Dr Lukhwareni’s ability to grasp the project of delivering change to the people of Johannesburg.

 

“He possesses a keen mind, enormous experience and the ability to put our program of action into effect. He is true civil servant, and the right person to take forward our drive to professionalize the civil service.

 

Now that Council has approved Dr Lukhwareni’s appointment, we may now proceed to establish contact with him to arrange his appointment and starting date. I would like to put on record, once again, my appreciation for the outgoing City Manager, Fowler.

 

His support during this transition has been invaluable and I will be forever grateful for his professionalism, commitment and expertise., I have every confidence in Dr Lukhwareni’s abilities and look forward to working with him as we run a City that will stop corruption, fast track service delivery and stimulate job creation for our people.

 

Did you know?

 

Dr Lukhwareni currently serves as the Deputy City Manager of the City of Tshwane responsible for service delivery and transformational management since 2012. Prior to this Dr Lukhwareni served as:

• Strategic Executive Director, City of Tshwane,
• Head of Department – Public Works and Infrastructure Services,
• Strategic Executive Officer – Energy and Electricity.

 

• Lukhwareni has also held positions as an Executive at SAA and Chief Operations Engineer at ESKOM .

 

 

• Dr Lukhwareni holds a BSc Electrical Engineering from the University of Durban Westville, a Doctorate in Business Leadership from UNISA and a Competence in Municipal Finance Management Program from the University of Pretoria’s School of Public Management and Administration.