Tshwane metro has rubbished reports that it spent R15 million on takeaways for overtime staff in August 2013.
It said the R15 million was the three-year budgeted amount and not a monthly expenditure, as has been reported in the media.
“The actual expenditure between August 2013 to date is R4 308 656.20. The three-year R15 million tender is effective from August 2013 to July 2016.”
Earlier in the week, Democratic Alliance (DA) Councillor Bronwynn Engelbrecht said the municipal public accounts portfolio meeting was briefed on the takeaway expenses last Friday.
“I was shocked when I heard the particulars about this dubious tender,” Engelbrecht said.
“The tender is for the supply, delivery and off-loading of stand-by food parcels. When I requested clarity about the terminology ‘stand-by food parcels’ we were informed it was takeaway food for overtime staff members.”
The metro reacted by saying: “It is unfortunate that a public representative would shamelessly stoop this low by making such reprehensible allegations without bothering to establish the facts.”
Said food parcels were only issued when employees on standby were called out to perform duties for longer than four hours continuously, causing them to miss a meal during this period. The reason was that workers could not be expected to take time off to buy food while attending to something like a power failure.
“The food parcel is basically a ration packet that contains non-perishable products to ensure a long shelve life since it is purchased in bulk and only drawn from the store if and when required. The packets are only issued for unplanned overtime (power failures and other emergency overtime) and only if a meal is missed,” said the metro.
“The provision of food parcels to energy and electricity technicians is part of council policy arising from negotiations between the employer and labour unions. An employee who is on ‘standby’ is expected to be reachable at any given time and be within the proximity of 30km radius from the workplace.”
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Also read: R16 million on takeaways for overtime Tshwane workers
