A showdown is looming between the City of Johannesburg and 130 employees who were issued with notices to explain why the city should keep them on its payroll.
The city passed a resolution rescinding the conversion of their fixed-term contracts into permanent posts a week ago in a move that is seen by some as a political purge. The staff have until on Friday to submit reasons why they should keep their jobs.
The city has denied that its move was a purge of politically linked staff, saying the decision was based on compliance and following the Municipal Structures Act.
On Thursday, Joburg mayor Mpho Phalatse remained steadfast that the city would implement the resolution, terming the conversion an “illegal” decision taken by the ANC-led government.
SA Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu) cluster secretary Karabo Ramahuma, however, said they would reciprocate the hostility exhibited by the municipality. “As employees, we tried to be cordial and it was reciprocated with hostility.
“This is a witch-hunt and the only other platform to use would be a court of law. We're not section 56 employees, we're not employed by council and the mayor is interfering in the administration. We're heading for a legal showdown as council doesn't have the powers to reverse our employment,” Ramahuma said.
The 130 workers were absorbed in February 2020 under the late mayor Geoff Makhubo, after the ANC took over Joburg’s administration in October 2019 following former DA mayor Herman Mashaba's resignation.
Phalatse said a similar decision was taken on October 19 2021 when the mayor was the late Jolidee Matongo. “There is no fairness in this practice. These are people coming from political offices, these are people who are given this advantage to permanent employment at a high cost to the ratepayer,” she said.
She said the 130 personnel would cost the city at least R80m a year. She said the conversion of the contracts was an attempt to use the city coffers to build an army of [party] loyalists.
“As a result of the machinations of the previous mayoral committee the city and its residents are victims of attempted political hijackings that we’re bound by law to correct.
“To deduce the multiparty government’s correction of an illegal and expensive action as a witch-hunt is untrue. This is a new era where there is zero tolerance towards using the municipal coffers to build a small army of loyalists,” she said.
Phalatse said the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) had issued a regulation outlining the intent and purpose behind the employment of political staff; saying they must be placed on a fixed-term contract, with a 30-day exit clause in the instance of a change in the political administration.
Acting city manager Mesuli Mlandu issued a notice to the affected employees to motivate how the city can regularise their employments.
On Wednesday, the municipality deployed JMPD officers to issue notices of council's resolution to the affected employees after they, according to Mlandu, had refused to sign receipt of notices.
“The employees didn't want to sign the notices because we couldn't issue them to a union that claimed to represent them without proof.
“For us to pass the standard of service, we must make sure you've received the notice and given the urgency of the matter, the only space available for us to do that, was to use our security officials to go and deliver,” Mlandu said.
MMC for corporate and shared services Leah Knott said they wrote several letters from opposition benches to the ANC-led administration at the time the decision was made.
“We didn't receive any response from them. We were denied copies of presentations and we've been told they had bloated structures and wrote through our lawyer at the time there was a notable failure in the systems act,” Knott said.
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