Johannesburg - A legal tussle is looming between the former political staff of the previous ANC’s City of Joburg’s administration and the new DA-led coalition government after the ANC allegedly converted 130 of them into permanent posts before losing control of the municipality.
Now, the DA-led administration has served all of them with notices, saying that the ANC’s move was “an illegal gratification of employment” to them.
On Thursday, however, these employees through the municipal union Samwu, wrote to the City of Joburg (COJ) complaining about the notices which were served on them.
“We believe and understand that our contracts conversions are in line with the law due to the following: The conversion process was handled by the city manager’s office together with the HR department. We were not informed of the process that was followed to arrive at this conversion, however we were contacted by the HR department and offered permanent employment which we accepted,” the workers said.
They said that they were convinced that the Multi-Party Government was playing a political game at the expense of young, black and qualified people.
“This is proven by ’work from home’ notices which were imposed on political offices support teams immediately after the DA took power. Some of the affected employees were stripped of their tools of trade which includes laptops, office space, etc. The election of the new administration has also ushered in an environment of fear and intimidation against employees.
“Furthermore, we have noted the improper or unprofessional manner in which the office of the acting city manager has been dealing with the matter:
• The process used to communicate with the affected staff is found to be incorrect, with HR sending invites at midnight for an 8am meeting. HR also expected us to respond and motivate to them how an employment process was not illegal, while the same HR department was the one heading the process.
• City’s deployment of JMPD’s Intelligence Operations Centre Reaction Unit to deliver notices as late as 10pm at our private homes, with some police being heavily armed. This process is disregarding our human rights; it is also disrespectful, dehumanising and traumatising to us all.
• City’s refusal to direct all communications to the organised labour and opting to invade our emails and sending notices on WhatsApp. We have stated that the union will represent us on the matter; however, the city continues to harass us as an attempt to scare us.“
“As the affected COJ employees, we categorically put it on record that we are qualified and skilled, as opposed to the baseless and disrespectful allegations made by the government of the day that we are products of cadre deployment, unqualified and unskilled.
“Unfortunately, we as junior staff have been made clear victims of a petty political game.
“We also wish to place it on record that at no point have we refused to engage with the administration; however we are opposed to the underhanded tactics and unfair processes they seek to undertake in trying to engage with us employees. We will only engage in a fair, legal and procedural engagement with the City and not in the current process that seeks to denigrate us,” the affected workers said.
But according to Mayor Mpho Phalatse, their action came after the ANC under then late mayor, Geoff Makhubo, converted the fixed-term contracts into permanent employment in February 2020.
She also said a similar decision was taken on October 19, 2021 while the mayor was the late Jolidee Matongo. Phalatse said an unsigned conversion letter was adopted by the then mayoral committee, saying it was an unlawful gratification of employment.
“With 130 personnel imposed on political offices and the City’s salary bill at a cost of at least R80 million per annum, we had to regularise these appointments in line with the original terms of employment. We suspect that there could be more irregular appointments.
“The responsible actions of the Multi-Party Government must signal to all 36 000 of the City’s employees, regardless of rank or affiliation, that we are prioritising good governance in order to accelerate service delivery,” Phalatse said.
Political Bureau