The King Sabata Dalindyebo (KSD) municipality has come under fire for advertising more than 90 posts which councillors say were not budgeted for.
A week ago, pages full of general worker vacancies were posted on the municipality’s notice board, drawing hundreds of people from Mthatha and surrounding areas to view them.
Many flocked to local Internet cafes to print their CVs and make copies of their IDs.
The posts have been advertised before but were pulled after hundreds had applied.
KSD is notorious for having ghost employees, while the high number of employees in acting positions has also raised concerns.
Acting municipal spokesman Zibele Limani however denied the posts were not budgeted for.
“All the advertised posts are budgeted for because these are posts once filled by deceased or resigned personnel, hence we saw a need to fill them.
“They are critical to the smooth running of the institution. All the advertised posts are in our organogram and they are all critical.”
Limani said KSD faced the challenges of getting rid of potholes and some of the posts advertised would address that challenge.
He said the reason why the posts were originally withdrawn was that the municipality realised that its coffers would be depleted, rendering the municipality “dysfunctional”.
“So it was agreed that the posts be withdrawn and the departments must concern themselves with the filling of critical posts and those of the deceased,” he said.
But opposition parties in council allege that the posts were an attempt by the ANC to appease certain factions ahead of next week’s regional elective conference.
UDM provincial secretary Wandile Tsipa said: “This is an embarrassment that shows how desperate people can be when they play with people’s emotions.
“They (the posts) are not even budgeted for and they are not in the organogram.
“We suspect that due to the oncoming elective conference they are playing with people’s emotions to entice them to join certain groupings.”
Tsipa said hordes of young people had turned out to view the jobs.
The DA’s Raymond Knock said the party had raised the matter during the finance committee sitting.
“We will definitely say something about it in council. These are positions that are not on the organogram. The municipality has major financial difficulties. This has nothing to do with jobs but the upcoming elections.”
But council speaker Dumani Zozo defended the institution.
“The administration has a way of working. When there are vacancies available and a need has been identified, management advertises.
“There are no politicians that employ people in such positions. Politicians are not part of that.”
OR Tambo ANC regional deputy secretary Lawrence Mambila said: “We do not appoint in positions where there is no budget or those that are not in the organogram.
“We will have to request information from the chief whip. As the ANC we believe KSD is still in a financial crisis, it cannot employ more than 90 people at one go.
“It will be unfortunate if there are people who are using jobs to soften the hearts of people to vote for them. That is patronage and we cannot accept it. The ANC is committed to clean governance.” — abongilem@dispatch.co.za