INLSA
Eugene Nzama head of Durban metro police Picture: S’bonelo Ngcobo
Durban – The eThekwini Municipality head of disaster management, Vincent Ngubane, insists he harbours no ambition of permanently replacing metro police head Eugene Nzama.
Ngubane, who had been acting metro head for the past month, said there was no bad blood between him Nzama, who had returned from special leave.
“He’s my brother. I have worked with him in the past and we worked well together,” he said yesterday, the day after he returned to his disaster management office.
There was confusion on Monday when Nzama reported back for work and he and Ngubane found themselves in the same office.
Nzama had been placed last month on three months’ special leave by city manager Sibusiso Sithole.
Sithole said this was because of serious concerns around Nzama’s safety and instability in the unit under his leadership.
Nzama approached the Durban Labour Court to challenge his special leave. After being told he could return to work, he stopped legal proceedings against the municipality.
City spokesman Thabo Mofokeng, however, said his return to work would not halt the investigation launched by the city following allegations of misconduct and abuse made against Nzama by the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) and taxi operators.
“The city manager is still applying his mind in terms of how to move forward with this matte,” he said.
“There was never any confusion, as Nzama was never removed from his position. Ngubane, who was well aware that he was acting in the position, has gone back to his disaster management post.”
Ngubane, who was facilitating several projects in the force, including converting 1 000 temporary police officers into permanent employees, said he had briefed Nzama on the progress he had made.
“I handed over everything to him. I knew I was only acting metro head, so I never had any ambitions of taking up the post permanently,” he said. – Daily News
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Ngubane: no bad blood between us