DURBAN - COUNCILLORS in the Msunduzi Municipality are taking senior staff to task over the municipality’s poor performance, recommending that managers should not be paid performance bonuses.
Councillors in the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (Mpac) tabled its oversight report for the 2019/20 financial year last month.
It was adopted by the full council but that does not mean the bonuses will not be paid as the performance assessment is a legal process and Mpac’s views are only a recommendation.
In its report, Mpac said it was highly concerned about the municipality’s poor performance, and based on this it recommended that performance bonuses should not be paid. It would affect only employees who are on performance contracts.
The issue of performance at senior management level has also been raised by municipal manager Madoda Khathide, who recently said the council should revert to the system whereby senior staff appointed by the council are on contracts; and not employed full time as it made them “comfortable”, which undermined their performance.
ACDP councillor Rienus Niemand said they could not justify paying people bonuses while the municipality was under administration and the city’s financial position and service delivery continued to deteriorate.
The municipality faced myriad challenges of people failing to do their jobs. “Consequence management must be implemented, discipline those officials. The theft of water and electricity, for example, is not being stopped, and prosecuted resulting in the daily loss of millions of rand.
“This non-action results in no money being available for service delivery and to pull the city out of its state of chaotic disrepair. The corruption within the administration and the governing party is the reason for the non-action despite going through the motions of compliance on paper.”
DA councillor and Mpac member Johann Winterbach said all business units had performed poorly and there seemed to be no justification to pay the bonuses. As for the proposal that senior managers be appointed on contract, he believed that was the way to go – it would force senior managers to focus on the tasks at hand.
Msunduzi mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla said bonuses was a legal process dictated by performance reviews that were still unfolding. There were still big challenges, but the municipality had filled vacancies and improved its audit outcome so there was a case to reward those who performed well.
THE MERCURY