MK vets to get preference for jobs and tenders

Published Sep 1, 2015

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Durban - The eThekwini Municipality has buckled under pressure from uMkhonto we Sizwe military veterans demanding employment and tender contracts, by proposing a “precedent-setting” policy to accommodate the former combatants.

In a move to ease tension 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 provision 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 is succumbing to ridiculous demands made by MK veterans.

DA provincial and eThekwini caucus leader Zwakele Mncwango said the policy was “dangerous”.

“MK has been militant of late in demanding to be taken care of … Our worry is because MK in Umlazi has blocked Durban Solid Waste and contractors from collecting refuse, demanding that they get the contracts,” he said, adding that the same strategy was being employed by MK in the proposed setting up of the security unit.

“They are holding council leaders to ransom,” said Mncwango.

He said city manager Sibusiso Sithole had delaying presenting a report he had requested about the alleged 100 MK veterans who had been recruited as security officers “without following human resources processes”.

“They are not doing any work, but they are being paid. They were never interviewed,” said Mncwango.

 

MF councillor Patrick Pillay said the policy was “tantamount to job reservation”.

“Job reservation means undermining the principles of fair labour practice. The Labour Relations Act does not warrant job reservations for anyone,” he said.

Repeated efforts to get comment from KwaZulu-Natal MK chairman Themba Mavundla were unsuccessful as his phone was switched off.

Motivating for the implementation of the policy, the report said military veterans and their dependants were in some instances “experiencing serious challenges to meet basic necessities of livelihood”.

The city played a critical role in “restoring the veterans’ dignity”.

This was “absolutely critical” in also “reducing tensions that lead to disruptions to the implementation of council projects and exponential increases in project costs”, it continued.

“This policy thus closes this gap and creates certainty about what the municipality can do for different classes or categories of military veterans,” the report read.

Sithole said the practice was not unique to eThekwini, as there were numerous examples of military veterans being employed by municipalities after world wars and during apartheid.

Should the policy be implemented, it would require the city to revise its human resources policies.

“Recruitment policies must create certain exceptions to accommodate veterans and … their direct dependants. This must be done in such a way that the municipality acts fairly and without bias and taking into account the needs of the most vulnerable military veterans,” the report stated.

According to the draft policy, South Africans who served in military organisations, “statutory and non-statutory”, between 1960 and 1994 and people in the Union Defence Force before 1961 would be considered.

Anyone who “became a member of the SA National Defence Force after 1994 but is no longer in the service, but was not dishonestly discharged, would also be considered. The veterans would have to be registered with the national database established by the defence department. Access to all proposed benefits would be through a means test.

The draft policy will see the municipality amend its supply chain policies to accommodate the veterans’ needs.

But the veterans will have to meet basic requirements of the business entities in which they have interests. A municipality-paid military veterans’ advisory committee of 10 members will be appointed.

The Mercury

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