Pretoria - The overhaul of the Tshwane municipality’s supply chain management division has been branded a political move to entrench cronyism in the council and to rid the division of whistle-blowers on corruption.
Last month, the municipality advertised supply chain management posts which means almost all officials and employees have to reapply for their jobs.
This has raised the ire of unions, workers and the official opposition alike, with allegations that the department’s overhaul was politically motivated to ensure the appointment of officials favoured by the political administration.
The supply chain management division oversees the procurement and purchasing functions of the municipality, making it strategically important and a lucrative division.
It has also been fingered as one of the problematic divisions in the municipality in terms of fraud and corruption by both the Auditor-General and Special Investigating Unit.
SA Municipal Workers Unions chairman (Tshwane), Veli Kubheka, said the union was convinced the supply chain division changes were only to “get rid of people who were unable to protect the corrupt activities of politicians and officials”.
The “radical overhaul” of the division presented a perfect opportunity for the municipality to provide jobs for “friends and allies”, Kubheka said. “Our message to the municipality is – stop victimising people exposing corruption in the council and stop advertising posts.
“In Tshwane it is clear that political heads are fiddling with the administration of the municipality.
“It is unheard of anywhere that a mayoral committee member sits behind a desk and determine who gets employed where.
“But in Tshwane that is happening. It is clear this whole process is a payback to people who have supported the political leadership.
“It is aso an effort to move out those who have been critical and unwilling to support the corruption taking place,” said Kubheka.
Mayoral spokesman Blessing Manale denied this, asking how such a conclusion could be made when the posts were still open for recruitment. “Should you not rather wait for the process and maybe challenge us on the individually appointed employees?
“These allegations are made with every appointment, and therefore they are not new,” said Manale.
The process was necessitated by various factors including redeployment and non-renewable contracts, Manale said.
The city would only comment on Samwu’s allegations about the purge of whistle-blowers when the union had communicated these allegations through “proper” channels.
“The city does not have a policy against whistle-blowing, we actually promote it, and we have set up an anti-corruption hotline.
“We have a policy against the dissemination, distribution, sharing and possession of official and clarified information in terms of the National Minimum Information Security Standards policy,” said Manale.
The DA also entered the fray last week, writing to Gauteng MEC for Local Government Ntombi Mekgwe to investigate why such a “drastic measure” was being undertaken by the city.
“Supply chain management is one of the areas where the Auditor-General has indicated serious failures in Gauteng municipalities as being responsible for considerable wasteful and irregular expenditure and even fraud and corruption.
“The question therefore is why an overhaul of this division is being implemented if none of the existing staff has been held responsible for any transgressions.
“The suspicion raised is that this is a ploy by political players to gain control over the supply chain management division to provide contracts and tenders to friends, family and cadres,” DA member of the Gauteng legislature Fred Nel wrote to Mekgwe.
A municipal official in the supply chain division, who did not want to be identified as he’s not authorised to speak to the media but is critical of the process, said the overhaul of the division was nothing more than an exercise to “cleanse” the division of officials and employees who were not favoured by the current leadership.
According to the official, the political motivation for the overhaul was clearly illustrated by the changes made to the bid committees that adjudicate and evaluate various tenders in the municipality.
“Bid committee members are appointed in their capacity as officials, so it has not come as a surprise that officials who are not wanted in bid committees be moved and redeployed elsewhere.
“The non-renewal of the contract of the previous executive director at supply chain was a notable sign that people who were perceived not to be on the right side of the political spectrum were being shipped out,” said the source.
Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) general manager in the Tshwane region, Rudy de Bruin, said they were opposed to the move to have employees reapply for their positions as it meant many of them would lose their jobs.
“Most of those jobs advertised already have people performing those functions, so why do they have to reapply for their jobs? Legally, it is incorrect what they are doing.
“We already have people who are sitting at home doing nothing but they continue to be paid. That is a waste of taxpayers’ money and we are opposed to it,” said De Bruin.
Many of Imatu’s members had expressed uncertainty about their jobs because they had to reapply, meaning there were real chances that they would not be reappointed to their positions, he said.
Pretoria News