Disgruntled City of Tshwane employees ask Ramaphosa to intervene

While the DA in Tshwane reels from the recent South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) strike and battles to finalise its relationship with outgoing and embattled city manager Moeketsi Mosola, a group of employees calling themselves “concerned employees of Tshwane” are pleading with both national and provincial government to intervene in the city’s state of affairs.

In their letter dated July 2, purportedly by some of the city’s employees who refuse to make their identities public out of fear of intimidation, they call on both President Cyril Ramaphosa and Gauteng MEC Lebogang Maile – who is responsible for human settlement, urban planning and cooperative governance and traditional affairs – to assist.

The employees raise concern over Mosola’s alleged “reign of terror in the city”, Stevens Mokgalapa’s ineffectiveness as a mayor, procurement processes, tenders awarded by the city and illegal employment procedures, among several other claims.

“The morale of honest people are (sic) currently at lowest level as results of lack of action by those given the responsibility to govern the City of Tshwane,” said the anonymous staffers in the letter, which News24 has seen.

They are asking for Ramaphosa to personally intervene in the affairs at the country’s capital city.

In the letter, the workers criticise the DA government’s handling of Mosola, who has been at odds with the city for a long time, even taking it to court to stop a report by law firm Bowmans looking into the controversial GladAfrica tender.

The auditor-general’s report into the multibillion-rand contract found it was irregular and there was inadequate separation of duties in accordance with the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) as Mosola was the initiator of the process that led to the appointment of GladAfrica.

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