GOVERNANCE at the Mogalakwena municipality in Limpopo has almost collapsed because of a power struggle triggered by personality clashes between municipal manager Willie Kekana and corporate services manager Henry Thobejane.

The events that led to the bitter infighting in the municipality, as chronicled by Sowetan, are:

- In July 2009 Kekana, Thobejane and other candidates were interviewed for the advertised post of municipal manager. Kekana was appointed.

- Thobejane, in terms of one of his primary responsibilities to oversee legal matters, advised the executive committee that Kekana's appointment should not be for a period of five years but for the remaining term of office of councillors or plus an additional one year after the election of the next council.

This is stipulated in Section 57 (6) of the Municipal Systems Act. But Kekana was appointed for five years.

- After last year's local government elections the new executive committee was set to review and Kekana's contract and it set it aside.

This triggered battles between him and Thobejane and the continuing legal battles between Kekana and the municipality in the Pretoria High Court.