The 184 municipal workers who were laid off by the municipality have come out, guns blazing, with startling arguments and allegations.
About 25 men and women arrived at the Herald offices after the story broke on 2 February. According to them, the municipality sent them text messages to say their UIF forms had been submitted to the Department of Labour and that they should start the claiming process. They are still demanding to be reinstated by NW 405, however.
Moeketsane Jantjie challenged the municipal spokesperson’s claim in the article that they had been contracted for only four months, when they had, in fact, worked for two years.
The enraged workers, who were employed under the mayoral project, say the municipality promised that they would be appointed permanently.
Papi Makauza wanted to know why, if they had been employed as EPWP workers, as Maphosa alleges, they did not receive certificates for skills development at the end of their contract. That would have enabled them to apply for posts advertised in the municipality, he said.
But, it soon became clear that the former contract workers had other concerns too. Joseph Koki claimed that some of them have not received their child grants because Sassa (SA Social Security Agency) records showed that they were permanent municipal employees.
Bonisa Mkhoma alleges that her salary was never the same from one month to the next and Kagiso Baepi believes her identity was cloned because, according to her latest bank records, she is a secretary at Sol Plaaitjie municipality.
Dieketseng Moeketsi claims that she was interviewed for a messenger’s post but the municipal manager’s relative from Carletonville was given the position, instead.
Moeketsani Jantjie said the pregnant women could not submit applications for maternity leave because their details were never recorded on the labour department’s database. ‘We never even received payslips for the duration of the contract and the municipality has still not explained why not,’ he said.
Dipuo Mphosi even suspects that there are ghost workers at the municipality. ‘In April 2015, the municipality said there was no budget so we had to sit at home and waited for them to call us back.
However, the department of labour’s records show that we were paid for that month…what happened to that money?’ she asked.
In short, the former workers feel used and abused by the municipality, thereafter left out in the cold.
Selina Khesa says most of them were utilised to campaign for the ANC during the 2016 local government elections. ‘Our superiors warned us that we would find ourselves out in the streets if we did not take part.
‘I had to go on the door-to-door campaign with my two girls, aged 4 and 5. We worked the whole day and all we received for the day was a piece of bread,’ she said. ‘We were told that there are many people out there who want jobs’, she said.
Council spokesperson, Wille Maphosa says the Department of Labour has requested the municipality to resubmit the UIF 19 forms because the beneficiaries did not come to claim the benefit.
The new process will also include the letter of appeal from the municipality to enable the Department of Labour to restart the process.
Maphosa did not answer all the other questions that the Herald submitted.
Also read: Municipality lays off 184 workers
