Merafong Municipality approves more than 130 new positions amid financial struggles
The municipality wants to appoint many new people even though they cannot pay their accounts.
Despite the fact that the Merafong City Local Municipality does not have enough money to pay its crucial Rand Water and Eskom accounts, the municipal council recently approved various new positions in the municipality.
An item related to the municipality’s proposed new organisational structure, also known as an organigram, came up during the virtual council meeting of November 28.
According to the new structure, there will be more than 130 new positions that need to be filled. Most of these positions are for administrative staff.
Although the new organigram was approved, several DA councillors noted their concern over aspects of it.
One of the councillors, Carlos Rebelo, complained that although these are not new positions, the fact that the Deputy Executive Mayor has four officials that are helping him – an adminstrative officer, secretary, a driver/messenger and a special advisor – is wasting essential funds that could have been used for service delivery.
Another councillor, Blackie Zwart, noted that in the new organigram the Internal Audit Manager reports directly to the municipal manager (MM). He argued that this is unacceptable because it can lead to reports of financial problems being compromised as the MM can directly give orders to this official who is supposed to check for financial irregularities.
Yet another councillor, Carl Steenekamp, complained that the new organisational structure does not comply with the municipal staff regulations set out by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
