Cope urges ruling party to investigate
It was further alleged that most of the people who would benefited from the jobs were young people who worked tirelessly in the ANC election campaigns.
MBOMBELA – The Congress of the People (COPE) in the province said the ruling party must stop playing dirty games by protecting its officials who are accused of corruption.
COPE says these allegations cannot be ignored as the ANC would like people to do so by rejecting them instead of instituting an investigation into the matter.
This comes after the speaker of Umjindi Local Municipality, Cllr Vusi Mkhatshwa had been in the spotlight following the allegations labelled against him of interfering with the recruitment of staff at Barberton General Hospital. He is apparently accused of interfering in the shortlisting of people who attended interviews, which also includes his wife who is currently employed in the hospital after it had advertised vacancies.
It was further alleged that most of the people who would benefited from the jobs were young people who worked tirelessly in the ANC election campaigns.
Speaking to Mpumalanga News, the provincial secretary of COPE, Mr Sizile Ndlovu said, “It is definitely irresponsible of the ANC to simply dismiss the allegations that only the party’s members were appointed at the hospital without any investigation being conducted. The time when the ANC dismissed the rumours was the same time when other people who were not aligned to the party, continue to suffer as they didn’t have jobs.
“We are surprised at the way the ruling party is handling this matter.
“We believe that the public has a right to know the truth, but instead of conducting an inquiry they are beating about the bush, calling people who have proof to come forward. The speaker must be suspended due to these allegations labelled against him so that an investigation can start without any disturbance,” said Ndlovu.
He went on and stated that they were even considering taking this matter further.
“If there are no investigations on, we are taking this matter to the Public Protector because we can’t allow corruption to take place right under our noses and keep quiet,” he said.
It’s allegedly believed that even though people can come forward with proof and submit it to the ruling party, it’s going to be a waste of time as it is alleged that the party is good when it comes to covering its dirty tracks so that it can protect its officials.
This paper learnt that four union members in the hospital who were representing the workers, have been suspended with full pay pending the investigations while Mkhatshwa is not suspended in the council of the municipality as he’s been deployed by ANC.
The suspended union members are Ms Edna Godi of the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa,
Mr Sunday Myeni and Mr Muzi Shongwe of National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union and Ms Thembi Zulu of Health and Other Services Personnel Trade Union of South Africa.
The convener in media and communi-cation at Umjindi ANC, Mr Bhekizwe Nkambule said, “Like we said ealier on, we want people to give us proof. These are just allegations.
“You can’t just suspend a person on allegations, but we are not surprised as the ruling party to hear that from COPE as we know that it is almost elections time.
“All opposition parties will try to make themselves relevant to the public and we don’t have time to play games with any opposition party.”
