Sihle Manda
DURBAN: eThekwini Municipality has “buckled” to pressure from uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) military veterans demanding employment and tender contracts by proposing a “precedent-setting” policy to accommodate them.
In a move to ease tensions blighting projects, the city has drafted a policy that would see the veterans get preferential treatment for jobs and tenders.
The veterans have recently upped the ante on the city’s leadership – threatening service delivery in some instances.
Their “dependants” also stand to gain from the policy.
The draft policy, titled “draft policy for military veterans’ support framework for eThekwini Municipality”, is before the municipality’s executive committee and is sure to stir heated debate.
According to the report, the policy aims to compensate city “sons and daughters… involved in the Struggle” who “in the process sacrificed their lives and futures”.
This will include housing, facilitation of job placement, skills development and training, access to health services, facilitation of or advice on business opportunities and other support.
But opposition parties are rejecting the policy, saying the city was succumbing to “ridiculous” demands made by MK veterans, associated with the ANC. DA provincial and eThekwini caucus leader Zwakele Mncwango said the policy was “dangerous”.
He said the city recruited 100 men as security officers “without following human resources processes”.
“They are not doing any work but they are being paid. They were never interviewed.”
MF councillor Patrick Pillay said the policy was “tantamount to job reservation”.