Manager doesn’t qualify for R1m job
Emfuleni cited for irregular selection
ground and the toilet is always blocked and the smell is unbearable. I don’t know the last time I enjoyed food without the odour. My six-month-old baby was born under these conditions and I [fear] for her health,” Makhanye said.
Emfuleni mayor Jacob Khawe yesterday said the area was not supposed to have been developed for human settlement.
“It’s a bad state of affairs and it sounds like [I am making] an excuse. I raised [this issue] with the MEC that the houses were built on a wetland and the area is next to a sewer pump,” Khawe said.
“We are now trying interim measures and if you ask me what is the solution I will tell you it’s relocation. But to where? And at what cost?
“It’s an unfortunate situation that we have identified the solution but there is no money for the solution.”
When Sowetan visited the area yesterday, the team was greeted by a pungent smell of sewage and rotting waste from heaps of uncollected refuse.
Some residents are still hopeful that the municipality will end their misery sooner.
The crisis has led to nearby streams and rivers being contaminated with sewage, which in turn affects the the Vaal River system.
This week DA Emfuleni caucus leader, Dady Mollo, said in a statement the party would write to the premier requesting an urgent intervention into the matter.
Mollo said they would also ask the minister of water and sanitation to intervene. The cash-strapped Emfuleni local municipality has been paying its acting facilities manager, Monaheng Moloisane, more than R1-million per year for a position he does not qualify for.
The municipality which incorporates the towns of Vanderbijlpark and Vereeniging in the Vaal has been unable to provide some of the basic services, including refuse collection and fixing burst pipes.
Moloisane was appointed as the acting facilities manager in January 2016 despite having matric as his highest academic qualification. His other listed qualifications were certificates for what seemed like short-courses and programmes on local government.
This was revealed in a written response, dated August 8, in the Gauteng legislature, by cooperative governance and traditional affairs MEC Uhuru Moiloa. He was responding to a written question by DA member of the legislature, Lebogang More, stating that Moloisane would act until August 31.
Moiloa revealed that the post’s annual package amounted to R1 002 684.00 with minimum requirements being a bachelor’s degree in facilities management or building or property management topped by a five-year managerial experience.
“The post was advertised in June 2017, recruitment process could not be concluded,” Moiloa said. The package included car allowance, housing subsidy and medical aid.
Emfuleni communications manager Stanley Gaba confirmed last night that Maloisane started acting in the position on January 1 2016 to date.
Gaba said Moloisane was not a permanent appointee as the position remains vacant until a suitably qualified candidate was appointed through a fair recruitment and selection process. On Wednesday, a service provider withheld its fleet of 158 vehicles used by the municipality due to nonpayment. The vehicles were released after Emfuleni reportedly paid the service provider R7-million.