The payouts, amounting to R5.3m were made in 2023 to GTM employees for Covid-19-related danger pay. The Herald has a letter delivered by a councillor to the office of the mayor and office of the speaker of the municipality on January 29. The letter calls for an investigation into the payment of R5.3m in danger pay to GTM employees in July 2023 for dangers incurred in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.

It also calls for the provisional suspension of the municipal manager. “This payment was not put to council for approval and in terms of the Municipal Finance Management Act, such a payment must be ratified by council. “The budget for such a line item cannot be found in the municipal budget and we are not aware of an application for the deviation of budgets, or of any Section 71 report being submitted to Treasury for such deviation.

Also read: Group calls for service delivery from GTM

We believe that the R5.3m danger pay was done without following due process and is therefore unjustified. It must be recovered,” the letter reads. Jacques Smalle, member of parliament and DA shadow minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) in September last year posed questions to the Minister of CoGTA, Thembi Nkadimeng, relating to the payment of danger pay to municipalities, to which she replied that the department had not issued an instruction to any municipalities to award municipal officials danger pay for their efforts during the pandemic.

Contacted for comment, GTM media liaison officer Vutivi Makhubele said since the matter is in the process of being addressed by the office of the speaker, they would only be able to issue a statement after the formal response, around two weeks from the enquiry.