Senior managers at the Department of Home Affairs’ Pretoria offices will have to explain why they let contract workers continue performing their duties when their contracts had ended.
It has come to light that about 400 contract workers whose contracts expired last Thursday were allowed to continue working last Friday and on Monday after their contracts had expired.
Some claimed they had been asked to carry on working as their contracts would be extended, as they had been in March.
The workers, mostly based at the department’s Watloo offices, said they were stopped from working only on Tuesdday and told to leave the premises when they reported for duty.
Home Affairs director-general Mkuseli Apleni said if it was proven that workers were allowed to work while out of contract, the senior managers responsible would have to explain how this happened.
“If it is true, that means some managers did not comply with the contracts the department had signed with the contract workers.
“The contracts clearly state that June 30 was their last day in the service of the department and they were not supposed to work beyond that,” Apleni said.
The workers claimed to have been unfairly dismissed by the department, and said they should have been given sufficient notice before their contracts were terminated.
Requesting anonymity for fear of victimisation, they explained that when their contracts came to an end at the end of last month, they were asked to continue working because there was still a big workload.
One said: “They promised us three-month contracts to last until the projected end of the project in September, but they also said we should expect an extension after that - until December, because of the huge workload.”
On Friday and Monday they went about their normal duties, which included processing applications for Zimbabwean nationals who wished to live and work in South Africa, but when they arrived at work on Tuesday, they said, they were told to stop working and to leave immediately, because they no longer had contracts with the department.
“We were told to hand in state equipment and to take all our belongings, or risk being thrown out by security (guards) if we did not leave.”
They said the workload consisted of more than 147 000 untouched files which were waiting for outstanding requirements like fingerprints, letters from employers and passports, and an additional pile of completed files waiting for approval.
“We should have been given a month’s notice, because we have families to support, bills and installments to pay – what will we do now?” another asked.
Apleni said the department had advertised a total of 558 posts and had received more than 143 000 applications for the positions.
Only 104 contract workers were retained for the permanent positions, and more contract workers would be released from the department leading up to the July 31 deadline for processing applications by Zimbabweans wishing to stay and work in South Africa. - Pretoria News