End state looting

THE EKURHULENI metro’s move to stamp out the abuse of overtime pay in the waste management department should be welcome. We reported yesterday that the department exceeded its 2015/16 budget by a whopping R88.3 million. One of the employees raked up 212 hours of overtime in February last year alone, in addition to the 160 hours he was contracted to work a month. Another raked up an extra 175 hours, 132 hours and 157 hours of overtime between January and March last year.

This means that the crooked employees almost doubled their monthly pay through their dubious claims.

As a result of these selfish actions, 176 positions have been frozen at a time when the country faces rampant unemployment. It also means the department is running on fewer staff, resulting in challenges for waste-management service delivery in the metro.The ratepayers and citizens are the casualties of these actions.

The metro says it has decided to limit overtime claims to 40 hours a month in a bid to contain costs and deal with the abuse. But while this will deal with the abuse, implicated officials must be made to pay back the money and should be dismissed forthwith.

The managers who signed off the claims must also be asked to explain their rationale and be made to account for their negligent actions. The R88.3m could have been used to improve the lives of the people. That money must be recouped.

A forensic probe should be conducted across all the departments in the metro to make sure that this cancer is identified in all its forms, and that it is dealt with as a matter of urgency.

Mayor Mzwandile Masina has the opportunity to showcase ANC excellence in the only metro the party governs in Gauteng, and must show ratepayers and residents of Ekurhuleni that the culture of corruption and impunity is over.

Our metros are ridden with graft, and officials who in some cases are beneficiaries of political patronage networks, often get away with it.

The change of leadership in metros must see the end of this culture of looting. In Joburg and Tshwane, mayors Herman Mashaba and Solly Msimanga have shown their appetite to clean up the system and strengthen corporate governance to ensure ratepayers and citizens get quality service for their money.

Masina will do himself – and the ANC – a great disservice is he does not act tougher.