by Anna Majavu
Makana municipality has allegedly banned all overtime payments for municipal workers, leaving residents affected by electricity breakdowns in the night or on weekends with no hope of help coming until the next working day.
The apparent ban on overtime has irked opposition parties, the Makana Citizen’s Front (MCF) and Democratic Alliance (DA).
“We don’t have a municipality. It has collapsed. One moment, it has a disclaimer and the next moment, they don’t have money to pay for overtime” said MCF secretary Ayanda Kota.
Kota said the provincial government had failed to oversee the municipality’s financial recovery plan. “The silence of the provincial government is painful. We are on our way back to court and another shutdown of this municipality is looming”, Kota added.
Residents of Ward Four reported that electricity breakdowns were only being repaired during working hours, leaving them for more than 12 hours without electricity.
Ward Eight’s councillor, Cary Clark of the DA spent almost one week attending to resident’s electricity problems. On 7 March, Clark said in a voice note that electricity managers had told her there was no longer a standby electrician at nights and on weekends because there was “no money to pay overtime”.
She said an agreement that the municipality had reached with electrician employees to take time off instead of being paid overtime had since been rejected by the electricians.
“With regards to essential services, they obviously need to be on standby. Unfortunately we are now in a situation where, if your electricity has gone out after they [the electricians]have knocked off, you will only get the electricity back on the next day” said Clark.
She added that she hoped the municipal managers would negotiate with the union to end the problem.
Makana municipality spokesperson Anele Mjekula said he would respond to questions from Grocott’s Mail when he had more information.
