Municipal employee misses four years of work over a protection order

Johannesburg - The Gauteng MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Mzi Khumalo, has confirmed that an Emfuleni employee has been unable to go to work for four years because of a protection order against him.

The Star understands that the employee, who has been at home for the past four years, has been fully paid but was reluctant to go to work because a colleague had a restraining order against him.

In a written response, Khumalo said the employee in question had allegedly threatened to shoot and kill his manager, who had been complaining about his absence at work. The municipality has been paying more than R500 000 a year to the employee who was sitting at home.

"Allegations of threats to shoot and kill the manager of Parks and Cemeteries were triggered by his always being absent from work," Khumalo said.

Khumalo said the matter was still pending even though the errant employee had been transferred to another department.

Meanwhile, DA representative in the Gauteng Legislature, Kingsol Chabalala, said the Emfuleni Municipality had failed to resolve this dispute, which has been costing ratepayers enormous amounts of money over the past four years.

"This unresolved dispute is a massive cost to taxpayers that must not be allowed to continue. This dispute between the two employees is costing Emfuleni residents, who continue to suffer a collapse in service delivery," Chabalala said.

Chabalala said the fact that the dispute had lasted for years indicated that the Emfuleni Human Resources Department had failed to resolve it.

"The DA demands that MEC Khumalo urgently intervene and resolve this dispute to curb any further loss of income by Emfuleni. In addition, the DA proposes that the Gauteng provincial government put measures in place to ensure disputes between managers and subordinates are resolved promptly," he said.

The Star contacted the Emfuleni Municipality for comment but didn’t receive any by the time of publication.

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