Government officials locked out of offices

MBOMBELA – Officials of the Department of Economic Development and Tourism were greeted by locked doors on Wednesday morning when reporting for work at the Nedbank building. According to the disgruntled employees of the department, it was not clear why they could not be allowed inside the offices by their landlord.

“We asked around what was the reason for them to lock us and one of the building management staff said that the department was apparently owing rental payment. Now we have to stand out here in the cold,” said an employee who was standing outside the building.

When Mpumalanga News phoned the landlord for clarity on the issue, he politely said that he was not going to comment.

Regional manager for the department,Mr Wilson Makaringe addressed the confused officials saying that the head of department had instructed him to tell them that they were free to go home and report to work on Thursday.

“Those of you who were supposed to be working out in the field can continue with your assignments but if you were supposed to be working from the office, you can take the rest of the day off work,” he told them.

Asked why they had been locked out, he stated that he was only a messenger sent to address the staff and that he also was not aware of what was going on.

“The department has a spokesperson and he will be the right person to comment on the matter at hand, my job here was to tell the staff what to do,” he concluded.
Attempts to get comment from the department were fruitless.