The Democratic Alliance (DA) requested the Speaker of Molemole Municipality Mpelege Moreroa on Friday to summon its Mayor, Edward Paya to the Ethics Committee after he allegedly instructed more than 113 municipal employees to stay away from work for two days during the previous week, allegedly bringing the municipality to a standstill with no services being rendered.
DA councillor in the municipality, Calvin Matjie said in a media release that Paya allegedly instructed the employees to take leave after the South African Municipal and Allied Workers Union’s recent municipal elections, According to Matjie, Paya’s instruction was made without consulting the Municipal Manager.
Spokesperson for the municipality, Morongwa Pholoba said that the municipality denies that Paya instructed officials not to come to work. “We would like to put on record that at no stage were the municipal services disrupted on the said days as they were normal working days. Those employees who were not present were on leave as per arrangements with their respective departmental heads and in line with the leave policy of the municipality.
We are not aware of residents being turned away in the two days as alleged in the press release,” Pholoba said and called on any resident who was turned away or could not access municipal services to use the available channels of complaint management and report the matter for investigation.
“The current available channels to be used are the Presidential and Premier hotlines and our suggestion books that are available in all our service points or they can alternatively visit the Municipal Manager’s office to lodge a complaint,” Pholoba advised.
Story: BARRY VILJOEN
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