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DINSDAG 14 JANUARIE 2014
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Mqwathi under fire
Workers state their demands Tharine Hurter
MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES of Moqhaka went on a toolsdown strike on Monday. A memorandum was also handed to the municipality. However, after the Moqhaka Council negotiated with the dissatisfied employees, municipal employees started to deliver municipal services on Thursday. Morena Thebe is the official spokesperson on behalf of the progressive 875 municipal employees. The media was not allowed to witness the physical handing over of the memorandum to the top management of Moqhaka. In the memorandum, the employees state that they have reached a point of no return in terms of demands that have fallen on deaf ears at the Moqhaka Council and that they have decided to shut down all municipal services without any exception from last Monday, 6 January. The council met with the employees in order to address the protest. Employees demanded that the municipal manager, Mncedisi Mqwathi, resigned with immediate effect. The workers demanded that Mqwathi and his directors meet at the Allen Rautenbach Hall in the presence of the 875 employees. Threats were made that a voluntary phase 2 action
THE head of Mncedisi Mqwathi, the municipal manager of Moqhaka, will roll if the Moqhaka municipal employees get their way. Photo: Tharine Hurter would take effect, should Mqwathi not resign. The workers gave the assurance that the actions taken would be peaceful and no tyre-burning would take place. The demands of the employees are: 1) The resignation of Mthunzi Mthwalo (director of corporate services), because he failed to
disclose that he had been struck off the attorneys’ roll as a result of clients’ funds. This means that he has misrepresented himself and the municipal manager failed to do due diligence before his appointment; 2) Outstanding telephone bills of (071) numbers must be scrapped with immediate effect;
3) Addressing overall unfair staff treatment in respect of submissions, acting allowances where certain employees benefit; 4) Addressing the irregular appointment of a certain S.B. Kula. He was chased away by the employees, whereafter he went to the Department of Labour and the cost is believed to
amount to some R30 million. This money must be recovered from Mqwathi, the employees demand; 5) The payment of Mqwathi’s private accommodation with council funds must also be recovered immediately; 6) The payment of Mqwathi’s private groceries and food, also with council money, must also be repaid by him; 7) Illegal leave encashment by Mqwathi is a matter of concern and the employees want it to be recovered; 8) The costs connected to the illegal appointment of the companies CPI Payroll, Easi Q and Xavier Mac Master must be claimed back from these companies. 9) Furthermore, according to the official memorandum, Mqwathi ridiculed some of the black employees by calling them “donkeys” and “stupid Freestaters”; 10) The overall poor state of delivery and poor infrastructure over the years under the leadership of Mqwathi are not what the employees stand for; 11) Hans Engelbrecht, a financial official, was sent to Moqhaka by the National Treasury to help to clean up and get a clean audit for Moqhaka. The employees are not satisfied with his appointment and want to see immediate termination for the secondment; and 12) Employees are fed up with the continuous disclaimer by the Auditor General under Mqwathi’s leadership.
READ more about the dissatisfaction of Moqhaka Municipal employees and residents regarding the leadership of the top management of the municipality on p 12.