MAKHADO – The acting Director Finance at the Makhado Municipality, Mr Thomas Nephawe, was sent packing with full pay by the office of the municipal manager, following his inefficiency and lack of financial skills that led to the delay in transferring workers’ salaries into their bank accounts last Thursday.

Whilst the mayor, Cllr Sarel Rhulani Nkuzana, was celebrating the official establishment of the Nzhelele catchment Water User Association with the Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, Ms Buyelwa Sonjica at the Rabali Stadium, he was unaware that workers at his council offices were embarking on a “no salary, no work and no service delivery” campaign. Municipal workers from Vuwani, Makhado, Hlanganani and Mphephu were all assembled at the Civic Centre, Makhado, demanding their salaries.

The local chairperson of Samwu, Mr James Sikhwari, also confirmed to Mirror that in February workers had not receive their salaries on time. Mirror can reveal that the third delay in paying the workers occurred two days after solemn promises has been made by the mayor, the municipal manager, the Samwu chairperson and the finance department to enhance vhathu phanda at the council.

The suspended finance manager, Nephawe, had also promised that the problem would never happen again.

“A salary is not a privilege, but a right; today, they’ve got nobody to blame but themselves as they have already failed us, as well as businessmen in and around town. As Samwu, we have been saying this for a long period that people must be considered with regard to their qualifications, not because they have a relative on the Council,” said Sikhwari.

He said that the council is now operating like a pilot project, wherein individuals are brought in to gain skills. “We can’t work for nothing nor for favouritism. This government, since its inception, does not employ people and give them nothing in the end. This is because of your incompetence and inefficiency; you can’t just apply for the position if you can’t deliver. You want to sabotage the municipal manager, but see to it that you exclude us. What we want now is our money,” he said.

Sikhwari said those efforts by the Provincial government to stabilise the cash flow by deploying Mr Jack Mphago as the acting chief financial officer was not making any difference at the municipality. Nephawe, who went AWOL shortly after workers gathered at the civic centre, was traced and brought to the brief caucus between trade union leaders and the municipal manager by Mr Ntsieni Magwala. When asked what had gone wrong in processing the workers’ salaries in time, Nephawe said: “Like last month, we processed workers’ salaries through the VIP system. This time, we experienced a technical error while transferring salary information into a new system, called Cash Focus. The system accepted the information, but I found out later that approval had been withheld.”

After Mr Peter Magwala, Nephawe and Mphago were sent to negotiate with banks so workers could get their salaries just before 13:00 on Thursday, Mphago came back first and told trade union representatives that they would be getting their money. On his arrival, workers surrounded Mphago and lead him to the FNB bank to prove his statement, but only those with identity books managed to get their money.

Mr Peter Magwala, Director Corporate Services, confirmed that Nephawe had been suspended. He indicated that workers’ salaries would in future be processed earlier to prevent the same problem from occurring again.

* In the mean-time, the Municipal Manager, Ms Faith Muthambi, apologised to the public for the disruption of municipal services on March 24. “We regret that the consumers were not able to purchase electricity or pay for services, due to the disruption which occurred,” she said.