Xasa meets with municipal workers
Co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) MEC Fikile Xasa met with municipal workers on Tuesday to clarify why the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality (EMLM) was in need of provincial intervention.
This comes after Samwuaffiliated members at the end of September tried to evict the newly introduced administrator Vuyo Mlokoti from office, indicating that council had rejected Cogta’s intervention by means of invoking section 139(1) (b) of the constitution.
The Rep reported (“Workers protest slammed by REC”, September 22) that Samwu members stormed into a management meeting called to introduce Mlokoti and demanded that he vacate office.
Xasa said he was notified that Samwu-affiliated municipal workers were not happy with the introduction of an administrator in EMLM.
“Samwu members had submitted a petition to my office which they said had received no response. I had explained that I could only talk to them today, to which they agreed. Earlier today, I had a meeting with the EMLM leadership and we spoke extensively about the issue of the workers and general municipal matters.”
He said the latter meeting had resulted in several points being raised on how to help EMLM move forward.
“The workers blamed the municipal issues on the amalgamation of the three erstwhile municipalities and they requested the related report. I explained that the amalgamation was mostly handled by the municipalities involved and that there was a committee comprised of the district municipality’s staff which was there to advise when there was a need. The said report is available but there has been a lot of uncertainty around it.”
Xasa said he agreed with the workers to give all the people involved 21 days to come together and produce the report.
He said he hoped for co-operation from the workers, particularly the municipal manager (MM) Chris Magwangqana, in working together to improve the municipality.
“The administrator is not here to take the MM’s job, but to assist in turning around the municipality’s finances so that the municipality’s objective – which is to provide service delivery – can flourish.”