Frustrated senior managers in Gauteng municipalities and a former member of a municipal council (MMC) have spoken of how veteran local government workers stifle service delivery by being too quick to cite their labour-law rights and point out they have been in public service longer than their bosses.
Dubbed the kgale ke le mo KKM brigade (“I have been here long enough not to be bossed around”), senior municipal officials in Johannesburg, Tshwane and Ekurhuleni rely on how long they had been in local government to avoid accountability and reject new ideas on how they should do their work.
“We no longer have people who know they are there to serve. Instead, they believe they are there to work a 9-5 job, whereas the municipality is a service-driver that requires people who understand their task is to better the lives of residents. Picking up waste, fixing potholes, attending to water outages and cutting grass should not be seen merely as tasks, but rather as safety measures for the women and children who live in those communities,” said a former Joburg MMC, who asked not to be named.
Picking up waste, fixing potholes, attending to water outages and cutting grass should not be seen merely as tasks, but rather as safety measures for the women and children who live in those communities
— Anonymous former Joburg MMC
The MMC said the city needed to find ways to improve their employees’ work ethic.
“For me, that is what is missing. You can’t have more than 30,000 employees in the city but have challenges with grass not cut and waste not picked up. Instead, you see Johannesburg Roads Agency cars passing traffic lights that are not working, and Joburg metro police officers driving past jam-packed intersections and doing nothing, not to mention municipal cars driving all over the city and seen parked at malls during working hours.
“We need conscientious city employees [who do their jobs selflessly]. They must realise they are there to assist residents who are dependent on the city, and who pay rates for the services [they are entitled to],” she said.
A senior manager in Tshwane said permanent employees, particularly those with political party memberships, were complacent and “untouchable”.
“The kgale ke le mo brigade want to do things in the manner they have become accustomed to. They are opposed to change. If you try to introduce new ideas, they tell you that this is how they have always done things, even if their ways are no longer efficient. They become like mafias — you have to dance to their tune or else they will sabotage you as a manager.”
The high-ranking official revealed that Tshwane, whose substations continually go up in flames, had once had a plan to install surge protectors to prevent fires after vandalism.
However, this move was heavily opposed by those who work in the power units.
“They found ways to resist this proposal under former mayor Cilliers Brink. Almost every month in Tshwane there is a substation that catches fire, and we go for weeks with power outages. It’s a trend.”
In Ekurhuleni, finance MMC Jongizizwe Dlabathi told the Sunday Times that municipalities generally had a low work ethic, as well as inadequate performance and consequence management.
“Politicians get blamed for poor service delivery all the time. But the people employed to do the actual work are the officials and managers. At an institutional level, we don’t have a culture of performance, especially in the components that deliver services.
Despite politicians leading these departments, the MMC said their job was merely to provide strategic leadership and policy guidance.
However, the day-to-day operations and implementation buck stopped with the officials and heads of departments.
“Our job is to guide, provide direction and exercise oversight, and to come in at the tail end to ensure the job is done. We are not absolved completely from responsibility, but the officials ought to be questioned. These guys earn more than we do as councillors, getting a minimum entry-level salary of R2m a year as heads of departments. Councillors don’t get anywhere close to that, yet politicians and political organisations take the fall for everything going wrong in the municipality.”
South African Municipal Workers’ Union deputy secretary-general Nkhetheni Muthavhi dismissed blaming KKMs as the result of lazy thinking.
Muthavhi rejected accusations unions blindly defended workers failing in their duties.
“That is utter rubbish. The unions are not some deputy God that will refuse to allow management to charge workers. The unions do not exonerate them if they are not doing what they are supposed to do. We are regulated by the Labour Relations Act, so if somebody is given work and he or she does not do it, that is insubordination. In such cases, you have got a right to charge the person. [Politicians and bosses want] unions to be sweethearts and not defend workers. We will defend them, but if they are guilty, they will be found guilty.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.