Fans have been bought for some staff at KwaDukuza municipality’s Ballito offices, but licensing and finance staff are still forced to close up shop in hot weather.

For over a month, the offices have been closing early at 1pm on days when the temperature exceeds 27°C.

This is because the air-conditioning system at Nokukhanya Luthuli House is broken and, according to municipal spokesperson, Sifiso Zulu, causes dangerous working conditions for staff.

The early closures have drawn the ire of many residents who have been turned away:

Karen Landman – And what will happen if we get pulled over and get fines due to expired license disks? Can we show this article and tell the cops that we have been there twice and no one is able to assist us?

Lori-Beth Lunn – @Karen Landman every day I took a photo of my completed form in front of the closed door with a date/timestamp – to show how many times I tried (in case I got pulled over with my expired disk). Irony here is that the a/c’s at my work weren’t working either, and here I was stressing about missing time in the office while trying day after day to get this done!

Christina Momos-Osborne – I think it has become the norm that this is what we pay public servants for …. Nothing. Who is it that said something about ‘don’t keep doing what you’re doing and expect different results.

Nkosinathi Mnatosh Gedeza – A fan is only R200. Why not buy fans for all offices and carry on working? They can use petty cash.

Barry Bowditch – While you scramble to “procure fans” and give staff extended breaks because the temperature reaches 27°C, the rest of this community continues to suffer under your complete failure to provide essential services.
Let me remind you of something: when I started working, it was in a small banking agency. We had no air conditioners. We worked in conditions that sometimes exceeded 40°C, and yet, we got the job done. But today, in a municipality where millions of rands are collected in rates and taxes, your staff apparently cannot function unless they’re pampered in climate-controlled offices. Pathetic.
Meanwhile, outside your failing offices, the real world is falling apart. Roads are crumbling, riddled with potholes that remain unfixed for months or even years. Services are virtually nonexistent. Crime is out of control. Money disappears as if it’s going out of fashion, yet nothing improves. The people who fund this circus – your ratepayers – get nothing in return.
We are tired of the excuses, the corruption and the endless incompetence. Fix the municipality, do your jobs and start showing some accountability before there is nothing left to govern.

Noreen Swartz – I work from a home office …. I don’t have aircon! I have a fan and when there is load shedding I grin and bear it. If government employees ran their own business they would learn to work through all conditions and most definitely far longer hours than 8-4 … with tea time and lunch in-between. Toughen up people!

Olivia Roels Sak – I used Natis last year. License delivered at home for reasonable price and timeously. And I don’t blame them for going home if the aircon is not working. Working behind windows if the heat is honestly unbearable. Also, when it’s hot and humid like this, I assume not too many people will stand in the queue, if you can hardly breath inside those offices.

Trivashen Moodley – Pay them hourly, schools are without electricity and small children bare the heat but adults in offices can’t. This is ridiculous.

Susan Blampied – Teachers teach children in unbearable heat, some without even a fan but life goes on. Sad to hear this as it is such a beautiful, pristine area, spoilt by the lack of well run and maintained services.

Barbara Fourie – They won’t work in temp higher than 27 deg but their children must go to school and sit in those temps. Shame on you.

Kim Ann Peacock – Last I checked having air conditioning wasn’t a basic condition of employment?

Mary-Anne Jackson – What’s going to happen in winter I wonder, open at 1pm and close at 3pm?

Naomi van der Merwe – Ag shame, they taking advantage. The less they do the better and the public must just accept this? I wish I could stop working and knock off earlier, as my office space currently also only have a small fan.

Engela van Biljon – As long as we just keep on giving them MORE money every single month, and continue to NOT hold them accountable by not DOING something to BRING the change, NOTHING WILL CHANGE. Or we could get together as a community and decide on an active SOLUTION to this mess.

Burnedette Compere – I wonder if they get paid full day for a half days work?

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