Staff dig in on overtime
Employees on the ground in Makana Municipality’s Infrastructure and Technical Services directorate, particularly in Water and Sanitation, are fighting back as overtime payments drop and it’s services to citizens that are suffering as unions usurp the managers’ authority.
“The unions are making decisions about what workers should do,” Infrastructure Director Dali Mlenzana told yesterday’s Infrastructure and technical Services Portfolio committee meeting. “We take decisions - they take other decisions.”
Portfolio Chair Mabhuti Matyumza allowed extensive discussion about the rendering of services within the directorate.
Manager of Water and Sanitation Ntombi Tshicelela said “I wouldn’t go as far as saying it is sabotage, but there are definitely more complaints attended to after hours.”
However, she also explained the difficulties for her staff presented by a shortage of vehicles and equipment in attending to complaints.
Councillors were unforgiv- ing as they insisted the responsibility for cracking the whip lay with the managers.
“You have control systems in place,” Ward 2 councillor Rami Xonxa said. “They must be implemented.”
Saying it was a clear governance issue, he spoke vehemently about the recent sewage spills in Ncame Street. “It’s disgusting! Sewage spilt all over our township!”
Matyumza was considerably more sympathetic, saying, “You [managers] are working very hard, but that effort isn’t showing because of the gap below you.”
He said there needed to be a programme to effectively bring about a change in organisational culture.
“We have a strategic plan – we must implement it,” he said, describing unnecessary overtime and private use of vehicle as theft.
“It’s stealing resources,” he said.
When Councillor Xolani Madyo intervened with a contradictory account of a quick and positive response to a water leak complaint through his intervention, Matyumza cautioned against good service being dependent on knowing “the right person”.
“All complaints must be treated equally,” he said. “It shouldn’t depend on who you know.”
How the ground teams operate
In the agenda for the meeting was an item that explains procedures in Water and Sanitation implemented since the beginning of July 2017 to reduce overtime: • In water reticulation there are five plumbers, each accompanied by five or six general workers. One of those plumbers is on (after-hours) standby for six days and works with three of those general workers for three of those days. However, a team will be added with the Manager’s approval. • The plumber assesses the urgency of the complaints and decides if it can be attended to during normal working hours, or requires overtime. • In the sanitation team, three unblocking teams rotate over seven days. One suprevisor is on standby to work and keep the team of three general workers for three or four of the seven days and rotate them.
In other water news, the report from Blackwater Diving on Settlers and Howieson’s Poort dams has now been released. While Makana had not yet had the opportunity to respond to questions by the time of going to press, alarming information includes that: • There is a danger of a swimmer being sucked into the open inlets at both Settlers and Howieson’s Poort dam walls. • At Howieson’s Poort the report indicates that the infrastructure is severely in need of renovation (rusted or no grids at inlets; massive debris build-up; dangerous and corroded top landing on the tower; valves seized and/or broken) and recommends a three-day clearing operation, as well as the refurbishment of the tower.
Two possible methods of extending the pumping life of the Settlers and Howieson’s supplies have been recommended – removal of silt or installing a suction pipe (floating intake) on the third inlet that can go deeper than the current level of extraction.