Mayor rebuts dismissal allegations
JOHANNESBURG – 'Employment of insourced staff is intact and has not been tampered'.
City of Johannesburg Mayor Geoff Makhubo has responded to DA caucus leader Funzela Ngobeni’s open letter as ‘devoid of truth and misleading’.
Ngobeni had written to Makhubo on 29 January and accused the mayoral office of terminating employment of more than 150 employees. Ngobeni said when the DA took over power in 2016, they were very careful to exercise logic and fairness when making decisions on the retention of political office employees.
“The officials whose employment you terminated have families to care for just as any other City employee. They are now part of the growing unemployed community. I understand that there is no obligation on a new political head to retain employees, still, the proper procedure and the rights of these employees cannot be ignored,” said Ngobeni.
However, Makhubo refuted the allegations that his office had terminated contracts of employees. He said the allegations were devoid of truth and misleading. Furthermore, he said all employees within political offices were appointed by the City on a contract linked to the term of office of the relevant office-bearer they serve.
“Upon my election as mayor, I extended an opportunity to the former mayor’s staff to continue to serve. They –in writing – elected to terminate their services with the City. No employee, has on my instruction, been dismissed from employment with the City,” said Makhubo.
ALSO READ: IN TWEETS: Here is the City of Johannesburg Executive Mayor’s new team
Ngobeni also said that he was aware of employees who were insourced by the DA administration that were fearing that the City might reverse its decision and opt for outsourcing of cleaners and security guards. “It should be clear to you and your administration that the DA will not sit idle while all the good work that was done is unravelled; nor will we be silent while vulnerable employees are abused and discarded aside,” said Ngobeni.
Makhubo said although there were challenges with the insourcing process, the employment of the particular employees had not been tampered with. “Similarly, insourced employees are now employees of the City. There are challenges related to the insourcing process but the employment of the said employees is intact and has not been tampered with,” he said.
Makhubo encouraged all political parties to play their part in making Johannesburg work and to avoid peddling untruths and twisting facts to suit their party-political rhetoric.
What changes do you anticipate to see in the City as the ANC takes over?
