The DA maintains that the metro is losing the battle against illegal land and building use, as funded posts in the City Planning and Building Inspectorate remain vacant on an ongoing basis.
According to DA spokesperson for city planning, Clr Heather Hart, the Department of City Planning is the custodian of the developed environment.
Based on this fact the City Planning and Building Inspectorate personnel are critical in ensuring compliance with city planning by-laws and building regulations.
“Currently the department has over 60 funded vacancies.
“This puts undue pressure on existing staff, leaving the metro at the mercy of residents and developers who either do not know the relevant legislation or deliberately ignore them in the knowledge that there will be no repercussions.
“The MMC of City Planning, Clr Masele Madihlaba, is fully aware of the impact of illegal land use, illegal buildings and illegal outdoor advertising.
“It is dependent upon the metro’s Human Resources Department to not only speed up its current audit on metro staff to eradicate ghost posts and for the city manager, Dr Imogen Mashazi, to unfreeze recruitment of funded vacant positions,” said Hart.
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Furthermore, the DA claims that efforts by the DA City Planning Oversight Committee to get these posts unfrozen have been met with ongoing resistance.
Meanwhile, positions have been filled within the mayor’s office, the mayoral committee member’s offices and even that of the city manager.
“Furthermore, the metro continues to pursue investment prospects but ignores the negative impact that the underperforming Department of City Planning is having on the developed environment be that in the residential, commercial or industrial areas.
“The DA will continue to raise this issue as part of its oversight role to ensure that the metro empowers its departments to better serve its law-abiding rate paying residents, business owners and industrialists,” Hart added.
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Comments received by the GCN from the metro state that the number of vacancies in the Department of City Planning currently stands at 86 out of 360 funded posts.
The vacant posts range from clerks to divisional heads.
Some posts are due to recent retirements and resignations, while some have been vacant from as far back as 2016.
“The posts are vacant due to the metro’s new organisational structure.
“Existing positions are migrated from the old structure to the new structure first.
“Secondly, as soon as these processes are completed, remaining vacancies will be filled.
“The Placement Committee will finalise it within the next few weeks,” said Themba Gadebe, spokesperson for the metro.
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