Tebogo Msimanga |
South African Municipal Workers’ Union (SAMWU)says it condemns the suspension of workers by uThukela District to cover implicated Councillors and Senior Managers.
The Union said it noted with great concern and agitation the decision by the uThukela District Municipality in Kwa-Zulu Natal to suspend twelve workers following the release of a forensic audit commissioned by the Province’s Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA).
SAMWU Regional Secretary Jabulile Mokoena said acting on the findings of the report, the Municipal Manager hastily moved to suspend workers, despite numerous cautions from the Union that these workers have not been properly served these letters of suspensions as they did not have reasons which led the municipality to conclude that they should be suspended. “As a Union, we further wrote to the Municipal Manager seeking clarity on these suspensions, questions which remain unanswered.
Following a leak of the report, which the Union is also in possession of, we now know that these workers were used as sacrificial lambs to shield the Mayor, Councillors and Senior managers at the municipality who have been implicated in the forensic report”.
Mokoena reiterated that as SAMWU, they demand the immediate uplifting of these procedurally flawed and vexatious suspensions of their members. “If Councillors and the administration at the uThukela District Municipality were interested in a corrupt free municipality, they would have acted speedily against the Director Corporate Services, the Mayor, the Municipal Manager and other Councillors who are fingered in the report”.
