City of Durban makes progress on 174 disciplinary cases backlog

In a report presented to the committee it was revealed that 162 cases were resolved as at 29 February, of which 90 were formal hearings and 72 informal hearings.

This showed an improvement on the backlog of cases from 31 October which were sitting at 336, of which 236 were formal hearings and 100 were informal hearings.

There are still 174 outstanding cases to be resolved.

According to the report, cases have been categorised in terms of the Disciplinary Procedure Collective Agreement, which provides that less serious allegations, which would normally warrant a written warning, can be dealt with via informal hearings.

Allegations that are more serious are dealt with via formal hearings.

Acting Deputy City Manager of Corporate and Human Resources, Kim Makhathini, said of the outstanding cases, work has been done but the cases have not yet been resolved.

Head of the Legal and Compliance Unit, Melusi Mhlongo said a number of steps have been taken to resolve the backlog of disciplinary cases.

These include rendering the Disciplinary Board more effective in order to clear the backlog of cases as well as dealing urgently with cases where employees have been on special leave or suspended for a lengthy period while receiving a salary.

He said these cases would be finalised within the next month.

Mhlongo said consequence management would be reinstated with three assigned advisors handling reports from the City Integrity and Investigations Unit whose duty it will be to see each case to its conclusion.

“If the case stalls, they will personally be held liable for the delays. These are just some of the additional steps we have taken to clear the backlog,” he said.