Samwu demands update on Vatala
The SA Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu) in Knysna Municipality picketed outside the municipal offices on Thursday last week to hand over a memorandum of demands to deputy mayor Aubrey Tsengwa.
Among the demands was a call for an update on the charges levelled against suspended municipal manager Dr Sithembele Vatala, and for the municipality's financial turnaround strategy document to be made available to the union.
Reading the memorandum, Samwu
Knysna branch secretary Wandisa Mjongile said in the past few months they have learnt of the municipality’s financial crisis, which resulted, among others, in the suspension of Vatala in February and the appointment of acting municipal manager Dr Michele Gratz. "We have been taking a back seat and observing the situation of the municipality going from worse to worst, with senior management members resigning and to be specific, the chief financial officer Mbulelo Memani who is responsible for the finances of the municipality, and a councillor who previously served in the finance committee of the municipality," Mjongile said.
She noted that they were under the impression that the appointment of the acting municipal manager at full pay in addition to still paying the suspended Vatala was to turn things around for the better.
"The municipality has been paying two municipal managers from February to date and we claim to be financially strained. Dr Gratz has been in her acting capacity for too long… We demand that the financial turnaround strategy document, if there is any, be shared and made available to the union representatives for scrutiny as our