Employees of the City of Johannesburg’s Revenue Shared Services Centre have stopped working, seemingly in solidarity with co-workers who were recently arrested.
Last week 13 officials were arrested and charged with fraud, theft and corruption.
Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba said disciplinary action will be taken against employees involved in ‘illegal work stoppage’.
“The current illegal work stoppage is unprotected under existing labour laws and is nothing more than an unfortunate attempt to shield corrupt officials from the full might of the criminal justice system.”
He added that the second instalment of the billing open day on 2 September will no longer go ahead because of the work stoppage. A new date will be announced.
Mashaba said since last week 40 more employees who work in the Revenue Shared Services Centre have been implicated in wrongdoing after banking institutions provided evidence.
“It is alleged that those implicated in wrongdoing have defrauded the City of about R2.5 million with fraudulent refund claims on behalf of property owners. In some instances, individual property owners colluded with officials to inflate refunds due to them.
“The figure is expected to rise as the investigation continues – more arrests are expected. The City will work with the Asset Forfeiture Unit to recover the money allegedly stolen by those implicated.”
Mashaba said that all involved in the work stoppage will not be considered on duty and will not be paid for the days they are not working.
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