Councillor fires back at corruption claims

The Tshwane Ward 60 councillor Mpati Raphela has refuted claims of corruption and nepotism at the Pretoria West Hospital.

The councillor’s response comes hot on the heels of a fiery protest staged by residents on August 5, which brought local residents to a boiling point.

Residents in Ward 60, west of Pretoria in collaboration with the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) marched to the Pretoria West District Hospital over allegations it did not hire locals.

The residents claimed that the hospital has been hiring general workers from other cities and provinces.

The handful of marchers converged on Philp Nel Park on August 5 and accompanied by SAPS officers, they took to the hospital to air their grievances.
A common complaint among the locals was regarding Raphela. Locals had alleged that since Raphela’s appointment, the relationship between the hospital and the community has deteriorated.

“If a councillor is hindering people from getting work opportunities in the hospital, it’s a concern to us. We want to expose him, he was supposed to be here and you guys were supposed to be interviewing him but he is not engaging the community.

The community is very dissatisfied with him because he employed his wife at the hospital as an administrator. [He] employed his friends there as well and even created fake residential addresses for those friends to work at that hospital, to do the maintenance,” said resident and community representative in Danville Ward 60, Thabo Makola.

Makola blamed Ramphile saying that the councillor must be involved in public service delivery and stay out of private business dealings.

Fellow community leader, Papi Monakgotla said Pretoria West District Hospital should not concern itself with matters regarding councillors.

“This is not a municipal office, this is not Tshwane House, this is a government hospital, a provincial hospital. So they’ll say the councillor said this, the councillor said that. Is this Tshwane House? The councillor can’t determine what the hospital does,” Monakgotla said.

Sindile Tauyane, one of the community leaders and march organisers, said rumours have circulated in the community that the hospital management is showing favouritism in its hiring whereby relatives and friends are considered first.

“We feel as a community that for the hospital to appoint people that are not within the community is unfair while we have people in the community who are unemployed. We have RDP structures owned by unemployed single mothers who depend on an R350 grant and that is very little as far as I’m concerned,” Tauyane said.

According to Taunyane, some of the ongoing projects to which councillor Raphela has apparently secured employment for his acquaintances are the renovation of the hospital mortuary, kitchen and storeroom. There is also supposed to be renovation of residential flats for hospital staff.

In two separate memorandums, Ward 60 residents and Sanco call for the removal of Raphela from all hospital-related activities.

They also call for all hires during his tenure to be terminated as they say they were employed through corrupt means.

Raphela has since dismissed the allegations, describing them as feeble attempts from a few to return to corrupt dealings.

“I’m well aware of all the allegations that the so-called community are making. If it was a community concern, I think that it would involve the entire Ward 60 but because it’s only a few people that are involved in various projects that want to hijack them. It’s not only the hospital that they went to, they’ve also gone to TUT, Weskoppies and other projects, it’s always them. This is not about the councillor, it’s about them serving their stomachs,” Raphela said.

Raphela said he has engaged with the hospital to make sure that he clears his name and is pursuing legal means to deal with the perpetrators.

“My wife worked at the hospital long before I became the ward councillor and I’m not working at the hospital at all. How can I engage in nepotism when I’m not an employee of the hospital?

“They have been engaging with the hospital on countless occasions and have been trying to stop countless projects, there’s videos and minutes that can prove what I’m saying. They’ve been calling me to the hospital to meet with these people to talk about projects that are coming to the hospital but I’m not a hospital project councillor, I’m a councillor of service delivery. My job is to deliver efficient services to the community of Ward 60,” Raphela said.

Dr Sizeka Maweya, the Acting CEO of the hospital, received the memorandums.

“We appreciate you all coming forward. We also appreciate emphasising the issue of peace because this is our community, and the hospital is in our community so we really appreciate keeping this peaceful,” said Maweya, adding the hospital will investigate the allegations in due course.

In Sanco’s memorandum, the organisation claims that the area is rampant with high levels of unemployment, crime, and drug use and that it is the hospital’s responsibility to help offer work opportunities to residents.

The demands include:

– Prioritisation of local employment

– Transparent hiring practices

– Address nepotism

– Implement skills development programmes

– Regular engagement meetings with the community

In the Ward 60 residents memorandum, the residents call for their councillor to be excluded from all hospital-related activity as they allege that he cares for his friends and not the community.

The demands include:

– An update on the security guards that have been employed by the hospital.

– Disclosure of EPWP workers’ positions regarding cleaners, porters, cookers, and administration.

The hospital has been given seven days to respond to each of the memorandums.

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