Worker Unions at the troubled Amathole District Municipality are calling for the Eastern Cape government to investigate the top management of the municipality.
This follows the unions calling for the removal of Municipal Manager, Dr. Thandekile Mnyimba and Corporate Services Director, Mziwodumo Dliwayo.
They are alleging that the duo are running the municipality as their private farm – hiring and firing employees as they please.
Last week, 30 workers were given letters of dismissal after they allegedly disrupted a council meeting in December 2018 over salary issues.
Amathole’s South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) Secretary Lona Lubedu says the union is being undermined.
“The municipality manager is a dictator, who does as he pleases in the municipality, and he should go.”
Independent Municipal & Allied Trade Union representative Lubabalo Ngqunge says, “The provincial government should investigate the running of the municipality. The top management ignores processes and purges on those who question them.”
Mnyimba has refuted these claims and is accusing the unions of wanting to co-manage the municipality.
The problems have caught the attention of the provincial government.
Spokesperson of the Eastern Cape Premier Mvusiwekhaya Sicwetsha says the municipality has a lot of potential.
“The municipality has huge potential, but that potential is hindered by maladministration and mismanagement of money in the municipality. We are intervening by evoking Section 154 support to turnaround the municipality.”
Meanwhile, the workers have threatened to shut down the municipality if their requests are not heeded.
Workers are demanding a 6.2% salary increase and an additional 2.5% that was agreed to by management a year ago.
