27 May 2024
About 100 former workers whose contracts with the City of Ekurhuleni ended in 2015 gathered on a field along Railway Road in Germiston on Saturday. They are petitioning the provincial government to help them get permanent jobs. Photo: Kimberly Mutandiro
Former City of Ekurhuleni contractors are petitioning the Gauteng Legislature to compel the municipality to hire them, among other demands.
The workers were first employed by Ekurhuleni municipality under a job creation programme called the Lungile Mtshali Development Plan Project in 2014. They were employed to clean the streets, drains, old age homes, municipal buildings, cemeteries and parks.
However, shortly before their contracts ended in 2015, the workers approached the South African Local Government Bargaining Council. They requested permanent employment.
A few months later, the workers were hired by a company called Hlaniki Investment Holdings (Hlaniki) to do the same jobs that they had been doing for the municipality.
Frustrated that they were outsourced rather than given permanent jobs, the workers returned to the bargaining council. According to workers, the municipality was meant to employ them permanently after three months.
The workers’ case then went from the bargaining council to the Labour Court, where the application to be reinstated was dismissed. The court instead awarded them compensation of up to R24,000 in 2020.
But workers insist that they want permanent jobs rather than compensation and so they refused to accept the compensation.
Now, several years later, the workers are still unemployed. They want Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s office and other provincial government departments to intervene.
On Saturday about 100 of the former workers gathered on a field along Railway Road in Germiston. During the meeting, they signed a petition which representatives will present to officials in the Gauteng Legislature on Monday. The main demands are for the compensation amount to be increased and for the municipality to absorb them.
They claim that Premier Lesufi, in a meeting on 30 November 2023, stated that the municipality would hire all former Lungile Mtshali employees between January and February 2024.
William Gundwane, a worker representative, said he had been employed as a cleaner at old age homes, dumpsites, and schools in Daveyton.
Gundwane said he has not found work for years but still hopes to one day return to work for the municipality.
“This (Lungile Mtshali) project was corrupt from the start because we were underpaid compared to what was promised, and there were no payslips. We have failed to access UIF because the Department of Labour system shows that we are still employed,” said Thami Mbatha.
Mamsi Modiba from Tembisa said, “We have children who need to go to school. The government should hear us and give us our jobs back or worthy compensation.”
Municipality spokesperson Zweli Dlamini said these workers were never employed by council but had “participated in a legacy project which has ended.”
Questions sent to Lesufi’s office were not answered by the time of publication.