DURBAN - A SKILLS audit has revealed that 29% of the staff members in the uMngeni Municipality lack the skills or qualifications for the work they do.
This was revealed by uMngeni mayor Chris Pappas as he celebrated his 100 days in office this week.
The DA wrested control of uMngeni (Howick) Municipality from the ANC in the local government elections last year. It is the first municipality that the party controls in KwaZulu-Natal.
Pappas said the focus in the past 100 days had been to assess the state of the municipality in order to start building a strong foundation.
“Some of these things are not ‘sexy’, but are the fundamental building blocks of good governance and a capable, ethical institution.”
When they took over, the DA had promised to conduct a skills audit of the staff of the municipality.
“The 2021 skills audit revealed that 29% of our staff are unskilled or unqualified for the work that they are employed to do. Two new skills audits are under way: internal and external,” he said.
Asked about the next steps for those staff members who were found to be unskilled or unqualified, deputy mayor Sandile Mnikathi said yesterday that their plan to address the skills issue was twofold.
They wanted to align the skills of the employees in the right units in the municipality.
“For instance, we found a person who has a marketing qualification but works in the agriculture unit, we could say that person’s skills are more suited to marketing and communication.”
He also said that managers who lack the proper qualifications for their positions would be given an opportunity to upgrade their skills.
Detailing other challenges, Pappas said there was a massive vacancy rate with core service delivery departments, such as the parks department having a vacancy rate of more than 50%.
He said they recently appointed about 40 contractors to assist with service delivery matters.
He said there was still a long way to go to get the municipality functioning as they wanted it.