Metro Manager: Re-employ Sutcliffe

After interviewing 27 candidates, the protracted exercise within eThekwini municipality to appoint a new metro manager seems to have run out of road (The Mercury, June 2).

According to a survey made last June, of the 257 municipalities, only 27 received a clean bill of financial health. That means the prospects of finding a worthy applicant for the eThekwini post are very slim. How many of the 27 applicants already interviewed came from failed municipalities? The most recent one was from the failed Ray Nkonyeni municipality which for more than two years has been unable to provide a reliable water supply to the lower South Coast. Such is the dearth of talent in circulation in terms of the racial and ideological constraints attached to the appointment process.

Given the declining state of eThekwini municipality, the prospect of becoming the new metro manager is hardly inviting. Nonetheless, perhaps the best prospect, if he is willing, is to re-employ Dr Michael Sutcliffe. At least he was competent.