LYDENBURG – Following the day of former president Nelson Mandela’s death South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) took to the streets to protest about several issues within Thaba Chweu Municipality.
According to a memorandum handed over to the executive mayor of TCM, Mr Michael Ncongwane, union members stated that they demand that the following aspects be addressed, including the placement of staff, fraud on employees’ salaries, the maladministration in the finance department, corruption, illegal contractors, illegal land sales and the illegal acting of Mr Surprise Maebela, the former municipal manager and the extended public-works programme.
The memorandum read, “We demand that the management stop playing delaying tactics in so far as implementing the court order with regard to the placement of workers, or face a warrant of arrest for contempt of court”.
Regarding the maladministration of the finance department it stated, “This department is frequently running its business as a private sector which is completely independent from TCM, particularly the revenue section”.
It also said that corruption has taken centre stage where it occurs transparently in the municipality and the truth is completely known to the entire management. “An investigation should be carried out regarding the unlawful use of the official vehicle assigned to the executive mayor where he drove himself to do his personal business’ in Bloemfontein, without the provided body guards, exposing the council property and putting the municipality in a high-risk situation.”
Touching on the matter of fraud within TCM, the memorandum also made reference to Mr Jacob Phala. “The municipal millions cannot just evaporate unnoticed. We demand that the internal disciplinary hearing be reinstated against Phala and he should immediately be suspended following the recent arrests made by the Hawks in this regard.”
Members are apparently also adamant that Maebela should be brought to task. “He sold municipal land illegally and nothing happened. The very same individual proceeded with fraud after he acted illegally as the acting municipal manager when his term expired, promoting his friends to positions and awarding tenders to individuals in contravention of the law. Accordingly we demand that the acting allowance he was illegally enjoying be recouped and that an investigation into the legality of all tenders be done.”
The mayor was again put in the spotlight as the memorandum stated that he (Ncongwane) “is constantly steering this municipality to the drain by promoting division and gangterism (sic)”.
“He frequently interferes with adminis-tration in order to feed his ambition. The community is at loggerheads with TCM because the mayor is not consulting them on issues affecting them.
“He has defended and promoted corruption by not acting against those who committed corruption in the institution, but instead, he punishes those he hates with a passion.” The memorandum was handed over to and signed by officials of TCM.
