Mnquma to review staff appointments

In a bid to rid itself of irregularly appointed staff, the embattled Mnquma municipality will review all employment contracts they entered into with their workforce between 2015 and early this year.

The municipality has appointed independent investigators who will scrutinise all appointments made in the past three years.

This is after it was discovered that recruitment processes had not been followed in some appointments, while other administration positions are believed to have been awarded to people who were not adequately qualified during this period.

In a letter to all staff dated April 25, acting municipal manager Zonwabele Plata told affected employees that should it be found that there had been irregularities in their appointment, such appointments could be “reversed”.

Plata yesterday confirmed that the municipality was embarking on a verification exercise.

He said they had decided on the move after noting from their records that some of the appointments had not been done by the book, while some were given to undeserving candidates, some to friends of those in authority at the time.

He refused to divulge the contracted forensic investigators , saying they were still tying up “some loose ends”.

“Yes we are initiating such a process. This is after we discovered while scrutinising records that some staff members were employed irregularly,” said Plata.

In his letter to staff, Plata urges affected employees to cooperate with the independent investigators which would soon call those affected to hearings on how they had been employed in that council.

The move comes after claims of irregular recruitment were uncovered during the period when the late Sindile Tantsi was at the helm as municipal manager.

Tantsi died a few weeks ago in a car accident while en route to the province from KwaZulu Natal.

Two other people who were in the same car also died in the head-on crash.

At the time of his death Tantsi, who had been arrested by the Hawks earlier this year, faced charges of financial mismanagement involving a R10-million black plastic bag tender.

This recruitment probe also comes at a time when the embattled municipality was engulfed by claims of sex-for-jobs.

The allegations by various female employees were that some senior administrators were using their positions to solicit sexual favours from prospective and junior employees in exchange for full-time employment and promotions.

There were also allegations that certain employees were wrongfully promoted to senior positions as they have had sexual relations with people in power.

Last September the Dispatch reported on a rape case that had been opened by one of Mnquma’s employees against her superior at the Beacon Bay Police Station.

At the time the Dispatch tracked down the alleged victim who told a story about a job, sex, false promises and threats.

The woman alleged that one of her bosses had raped her repeatedly between February 2015 and September 2016 because “he had given me a job”.

The woman claimed she was first raped at the Mthatha Garden Court hotel when she was invited there by her potential boss after she had called him asking for a job.

She claimed that the man had asked for sex before he could employ her, and that she was raped repeatedly afterwards while in the employ of the municipality.

The woman, who was in hiding in East London, further claimed that she was promised a senior position and when that did not materialise she decided to report the rapes to police.

She was later allegedly threatened before leaving her job at Mnquma and going underground. — asandan@dispatch.co.za