Image for illustrative purposes. Picture: iStock
The Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) has heard how a municipal administrator bagged a large payout for accumulated leave days.
The Emfuleni Local Municipality employee claimed his days, earned back in 2021, despite them being far above the allowed threshold.
Democratic Alliance (DA) members of the legislature were perplexed and said the anomaly was indicative of the precarious financial position the municipality finds itself in.
The payment was revealed by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Member of the Executive Council (MEC) Jacob Mamabolo in a written response to a question posed by DA members.
The employee, who held a managerial position within the municipal manager’s office, was granted a R132 000 payout for an undisclosed number of leave days.
Mamabolo admitted this was in violation of the municipality’s leave administration policy, but added that no other employees had cashed in such a manner since the payout.
“An employee is entitled to retain a maximum of 48 days of accrued leave,” stated DA Emfuleni North constituency head Kingsol Chabalala.
“Any leave in excess of this is forfeited at the end of the leave cycle unless it was accrued due to operational purposes,” he added.
What caused extra consternation was information showing that the leave was accumulated during the Covid-19 period of 2020 when employees were expected to work from home.
“[This] would eliminate the possibility of accruing leave due to operational services,” stated Chabalala.
Chabalala added that his party was informed that some employees who attempted to make similar leave claims were denied.
MEC Mamabolo’s office and the Emfuleni municipality acknowledged attempts by The Citizen to gain clarity on the matter, but no response was provided at the time of publication.
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Chabalala urged Mamabolo to investigate the leave claim and the handling of the payout.
He highlighted Emfuleni’s service delivery challenges, including the flow of sewerage into the Vaal River, indebtedness to Rand Water and potholed roads.
Additionally, Eskom recently attached Emfuleni’s bank accounts to recover R8 billion in debt and the municipality is one of two listed by Cogta as being “dysfunctional”.
Cogta has four categories for municipality rating: Stable, Low Risk, Medium Risk and Dysfunctional.
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