The Executive Committee wants the municipality to preserve its investments.
Following the expiration of internship contracts in December last year, Exco members believe ‘doing away’ with interns is a waste of time and effort.
Instead, councillors want interns to apply for posts within the municipality.
Providing insight into the status quo, council members said delays in due processes meant the group of interns brought in last year, were left unbound contractually, despite training provided by Newcastle Municipality.
“We have relied so much on interns. It will not be easy to have a situation where we do away with interns, and not fill the available posts.”
Mayor, Afzul Rehman said it was favourable to consider interns for relevant municipal posts, stating these students should be integrated into the municipality as part of administrative processes.
However, a self-imposed moratorium on filling posts prevented this from playing out.
“Now that the moratorium is over (as of January), interns can apply or choose to fall out in June, but we have to give them a fair chance to apply at the municipality,” said acting Municipal Manager, Errol Mswane.
It was resolved to recommend the decision, to extend said intern contracts until June of this year, with the Human Resources Department tasked with filling vacancies across the board before the mid-year deadline passes.
The filling of posts would be based on requirements of the various departments.
It was also resolved: “that Corporate Services department continue to engage new interns and experiential learners during and after this period as per National Skills Development Strategy (NSDS) III, Goal 4, obligation,” concluded the Exco minutes of January 20.
