Municipality responds to false employment allegations
"Unfortunately some of the departments submitted the lists of people not at work and did not remove the names of some of the employees who had passed away or left"
THE ABAQULUSI has come to their defense in the matter regarding the matter of a community member who was allegedly recorded as a municipal employee without his knowledge.
Mr Masondo, a Bhekuzulu resident came to fi nd that he was “illegally” registered as a land surveyor working under the municipality. This came as a great shock to him as he had never been employed by the municipality and was in fact unemployed.
“I came across this information when I went to pay my electricity bill at the municipality. I was shocked and went to talk to the Mayor about it and she informed me that it would be investigated and that I would be contacted after two weeks,” said Masondo.
When the Mayor was questioned by the Isolezwe about that matter, she allegedly admitted that the municipality was sorting out some cases of corruption and that Sibusiso Masondo’s was also among these. According to the Mayor, this resident’s details had been mixed up with those of a municipal employee with the same surname. She went on to say that it was suspected that this municipal employee had used this resident’s details in order to obtain an RDP house. She also pointed out that this had all happened before she was elected as Mayor of AbaQulusi. Nine weeks later, Masondo went back to the municipality to find out whether the investigations were continuing.
“When I got there I was sent from one office to the other with no one wanting to attend to my problem as they were all telling me they were busy. I was eventually sent to the office of one particular official who chased me out like a dog, refusing to talk to me and saying that I had no right to be there as I had been arrogant enough to take the matter to the newspapers,” said a ruffled Masondo.
He then left the municipal offi ces having not received any help and instead feeling very disrespected. The Acting Municipal Manager responded as follows: “ The issue of Mr SE Masondo was resolved two years ago after an offi cer from the SAPS came to investigate it and Mr Masondo was advised accordingly. Mr SE Masondo lives in Bhekuzulu and it is true as he alleges that he does not work for our municipality and our investigation confi rms that he has never received a salary from our municipality.
According to the Municipal Financial Management Act an employee of the municipality is not allowed to owe the municipality any money and as a result when employees are engaged or change their residential addresses, this is refl ected in the portion of the statement refl ecting “work address”.
The details that appear on the customer enquiry report for Mr SE Masondo are those of an employee of ours Mr MA Masondo who lives at a house with the same house number but in Lakeside. The official description of the low cost housing in Lakeside is “Bhekuzulu Phase 6 B”, the error happened when the account for Mr MA Masondo was created and it was captured as though he lived in Bhekuzulu and not Bhekuzulu Phase 6B (or Lakeside as it is commonly know). This error was corrected in 2013 and from there on the statement of Mr SE Masondo does not refl ect that he is employed by the municipality,” the Acting Municipal Manager stated.
She also went on to explain the matter regarding “ghost employees”, which had been alleged to be taking place at the municipality.
“During an unprotected strike that our employees embarked on in 2014, we applied for an interdict to the Labour Court to stop the unprotected strike and unfortunately some of the departments submitted the lists of people not at work and did not remove the names of some of the employees who had passed away or left, all the employees whose names appeared on that list stopped drawing salaries when they passed away or left our employment,” she said.
