By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
City of Joburg employees are facing dismissals over their fixed term contracts that were converted to permanent by the previous administration.
At least 130 employees said they face the chop after the city sent them letters notifying them about a decision to rescind their permanent appointment, following a council resolution last week.
The city deemed the converted contracts as an illegal act by the previous ANC-led mayoral committee, which it said had no powers to do so.
DA in the City of Joburg has accused the previous ANC administration of having illegally gratified their political staff with permanent jobs in gross breach of the law.
This was the assertion made by the Executive Mayor Dr Mpho Phalatse following allegations by a union and the affected employees that the municipality was allegedly purging them unlawfully.
Phalatse was briefing the media about the employment of 130 staff members who were on fixed term contracts since the ANC took over the City of Joburg’s administration in October 2019, following the resignation of then DA mayor, Herman Mashaba.
According to Phalatse, the ANC under then late mayor Geoff Makhubo converted the fixed term contracts into permanent employment in February 2020.
She also said a similar decision was taken on October 19, 2021 when the mayor was the late Jolidee Matongo. Phalatse said an unsigned conversion letter was adopted by the then mayoral committee. She said this was an unlawful gratification of employment.
“With 130 personnel imposed on political offices and the City’s salary bill at a cost of at least R80 million per annum, we had to regularise these appointments in line with the original terms of employment. We suspect that there could be more irregular appointments.
“The responsible actions of the multi-party government must signal to all 36 000 of the City’s employees, regardless of rank or affiliation, that we are prioritising good governance in order to accelerate service delivery,” Phalatse said.
The SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) cluster secretary Karabo Ramahuma labelled the city’s action as an attempt by Phalatse’s DA-led council to bring in their own comrades.
“The city says the positions affected are political appointments and not administrative. How? One of the staffers is a driver… How is a driver and a supervisor political office appointments?
“We are engaging internally with the city, but we won’t hesitate going to court. The city tried this week to meet with staffers and exclude the union that represents them,” said Ramahuma.