An Exploration of the Permanent Appointment of Senior Managers (Section 56 Managers): The Case of South African Local Government (Municipalities)

Countries that have the best performing local governments in the world only employ or appoint City Managers (Municipal Managers) on fixed-term contracts and the rest of senior managers reporting directly to City Managers (Municipal Managers) are appointed or employed permanently. What makes local government perform better in these countries are factors such as political stability, financial stability, good and clean governance, sustainable service delivery which is delivered by highly talented, skilled and experienced workforce. When the Local Government Municipal Systems Act of 1998 was amended in 2011 in South Africa, one of the objectives was to encourage municipalities to employ their Senior Managers permanently. However, this objective, for some reasons was not realised in many South African municipalities. It is for this reason that this study sought to explore the appointment of Senior Managers permanently in South African municipalities. It looked at the best practices in the subject all over the world and through literature examined applicable theory. It employed qualitative research methodology and interviewed both the municipal managers and senior managers in local government. The interview results were coded and analysed according to broad thematic areas. The study concluded that appointing Senior Managers permanently is the best option for South African municipalities. Some of the advantages of permanency are: there will be security of tenure for Senior Managers and this will improve their performance since they will not be worried about the end of their contracts; there will be retention of highly skilled, experienced and qualified managers with institutional memory; there will be reduction of corruption since they will not be easily manipulated to do wrong things in exchange for renewal or extension of their contracts; elimination of the high vacancy rate which is usually as a result of disagreements in terms of who to deploy in these positions, etc. The study has therefore recommended that South African municipalities should appoint their Senior Managers permanently.

Keywords: Appointment/Employment, Senior Managers, Psychological Contract, Fixed-term Contract, Institutional Memory, Local Government, Permanency, Retention of Skills, Institutional Stability.