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Lines of authority blur as Mayoral Committee gets involved in Middelburg Municipality. |
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Lines of authority blur as Mayoral Committee gets involved in Middelburg Municipality.
SAMWU PRESS STATEMENT.
4th December 2009.
On the 19TH of November 2009, five (5) members from the Fire and Rescue Services in Middelburg Mpumalanga province were arrested during the night for allegedly victimizing a fellow employee during a strike. They were sent to the Middelburg cells after their 22H00 shift. One of the members is a shop steward for that constituency. This was clearly a calculated move to frustrate the comrades as they were denied bail.
When asked why they could not release these members on bail, Superintendent Scheepers said that these were the direct orders of the Mayor. We were shocked to learn that the Mayor’s authority extended to the SAPS as well. On the 20TH of November SAMWU managed to secure free bail for the members and they will appear on the 14TH of December in the Middelburg Magistrate Court.
Lines of authority seem to be blurred in this Municipality because members of the mayoral committee (MMC’s) seem to be involved in the day-to-day running of the administration of the Municipality. One MMC currently occupies two portfolios (Finance and Human Resources) even though by-elections were held to replace the Councillors who resigned and/or passed away.
The local members of SAMWU were left to wonder if it was in fact a coincident that the same MMC’s son is employed in the Finance department. The MMC’s son is employed as a temporary worker(senior clerk expenditure) but we understand that he will be made permanent “soon” because he went around telling everyone that he did well in the interviews since he lead the closest candidate by one point. Again, we were left to wonder how such privileged information ended up in his possession? It comes as no wonder that the local shop stewards want to be part of the selection committee during the hiring process.
What is disappointing is that all these anomalies were raised during the Ministerial Task Team that was setup to investigate bad corporate governance. However, the Mpumalanga MEC for co-operative governance and traditional affairs is yet to table his findings before all the stake holders.
We hope that all those who have been identified in the report to the Ministerial Task Team will be investigated and charged.
For comment contact Kgosi Makwati SAMWU Highveld Branch Media Coordinator on 083 686 6995
Tahir Sema.
South African Municipal Workers' Union of COSATU.
National Media and Publicity officer.
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Office: 011-331 0333.
Cell: 0829403403.
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Worker's News April 2008 PART 1 (514)
