Pretoria - The troubled Emfuleni Municipality is embroiled in a jobs-for-pals scandal following allegations that some political support office-bearers were appointed in the offices of the mayor, the council speaker and the chief whip, two weeks before the municipal polls.
The ANC-run municipality with a disappointing history of poor service delivery saw the party’s majority power dipping below 50% in the local government elections.
The allegations regarding possible illegal political appointments surfaced during last week’s virtual house sitting in the Gauteng Legislature.
DA MPL Kingsol Chabalala enquired from Gauteng human settlements MEC, Lebogang Maile, why political appointments at the municipality made permanent despite a directive from Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma that those positions must be vacated, because they were linked to the political term of office.
Those implicated were Jabu Khumalo, appointed in the mayoral office; Matshepo Mtumbo in the speaker’s office; and Jabu Dlamini in the chief whip’s office.
Newly elected mayor Sipho Radebe, council speaker Sibongile Soxuza and chief whip Bennett Jantjie were still settling in their positions after they were appointed last month.
Maile said he would probe allegations regarding the appointments after he could not get a “readily available answer, which is reliable as well” from both the speaker and the mayor.
“We decided that we will investigate this matter to get to the bottom of the facts, and accordingly ensure that the applicable legislation is followed to the letter. We treat these allegations as serious,” he said.
Chabalala said the municipality came under criticism from various stakeholders for advertising several political support-office positions two weeks before the local government elections.
According to him, the advertisements were later withdrawn, but “there are now allegations that the process continued in secret and political staff members had their contracts extended before the elections”.
“There are allegations that those advertised positions were extended before the elections and raise great concern considering that it is illegal. The standard legal procedure requires the Emfuleni Local Municipality’s human resources department to advertise the posts after the election of the new administration which entails the mayor, speaker, and chief whip,” Chabalala said.
He claimed that failure by Emfuleni to follow the legal standards of employment recruitments indicated that “the ANC wanted to secure jobs for their pals considering that the nature of these positions are party affiliated”.
“Emfuleni is where it is today because of cadre deployment. It is high time that the new ANC-led administration focuses on restoring service delivery and using municipality coffers wisely for the benefit of its residents, instead of lining their cronies’ pockets,” Chabalala said.
Pretoria News