Decision threatens to cause total shut down

Date: 05 October 2015 By: Andries van Zyl

The Makhado Municipality’s recent decision to have several of their long-serving senior officials transferred to other departments looks set to have a major negative impact on service delivery.

The Zoutpansberger received news last week that several senior officials had received notice letters that they were going to be transferred to other departments. Some of them had more than 20 years' experience in their respective departments. This sparked outrage among municipal employees, apparently to such an extent that employees downed tools on Monday, 21 September, out of protest against the decision. Their outrage was, as far as theZoutpansberger could determine, based on unhappiness that competent personnel of, among others, the electrical department are to be replaced by people with no real knowledge of the field in their new departments.

Last Tuesday, the Zoutpansberger asked the municipal spokesperson to confirm whether or not senior officials were to be transferred to other departments, who these officials were and by whom would they be replaced. Mr Bobodi was also asked to state whether or not municipal employees had indeed downed tools last Monday in protest against this move, who had taken the decision to have these people transferred, whether this decision had served before the Council and what the reason for the decision to transfer these people was.

After initially indicating that the newspaper would have a response to its media enquiry in time for last week’s publication, Bobodi responded only this week.

Bobodi confirmed that: “A small section of employees under [the] electrical division downed tools, wanting clarification on transfer issues.” As for all the newspaper’s other questions, Bobodi’s only response to them was to state that: “However, the affected personnel have since lodged grievances and we cannot pre-empt the outcome. Therefore, it would not be proper for us to comment about this issue further.”

By Wednesday this week, the situation at the municipality over the management’s unilateral decision to have the senior staff members transferred had escalated to such an extent that municipal workers had apparently asked for the resignation of municipal manager Mr Sakkie Mutshinyali. On Tuesday, rumour again had it that municipal workers were threatening with strike action if the decision was not reviewed, with the possibility of a total shutdown in service delivery by the end of this week. “This is because there is a total lack of consultation between top management and employees,” said DA councillor Brian du Plooy. Du Plooy said that, should a total shutdown in service delivery occur, this would have a devastating and crippling effect on an already struggling municipal service-delivery programme. “Everywhere you look there are water leaks and sewage running in the streets!” Du Plooy said.

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Andries van Zyl

Andries joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in April 1993 as a darkroom assistant. Within a couple of months he moved over to the production side of the newspaper and eventually doubled as a reporter. In 1995 he left the newspaper group and travelled overseas for a couple of months. In 1996, Andries rejoined the Zoutpansberger as a reporter. In August 2002, he was appointed as News Editor of the Zoutpansberger, a position he holds until today.

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