SEWAGE CONTINUES TO RAISE A STINK IN KOMANI
A LARGE group of Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) workers slept outside the Komani Post Office on Tuesday evening after they were not paid, apparently due to a network problem.
The workers said they usually slept outside the post office the day before payment to avoid long queues because they lived far away from Komani. Most of them slept there again on Monday evening, expecting to be paid on Tuesday, but to their surprise, they were told late in the afternoon that their names did not appear on the system.
An EPWP supervisor, who did not want to named citing fears of victimisation, said they were informed by the Komani Post Office branch manager, Simphiwe Nyembe, that the system was faulty.
“As supervisors we failed our co-workers by not informing them in time about the situation because we did not have enough information. We tried to contact the head office but no one picked up. Workers are now agitated and tired because some of them slept here and have been standing in the queue the whole day.”
Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality executive mayor Lindiwe Gunuza-Nkwentsha said she received calls from various people on Tuesday evening saying that there were people sleeping outside the post office.
“When I got there around 10pm I saw little children and elderly women sleeping on cardboard. There were over 100 people and I could not just leave them there because it was not safe. I instructed someone to open the town hall and bought them food and toilet paper. I need to have a meeting with the Department of Public Works and the Post Office to see if there is something we can do to avoid this happening again.”
Mzukisi Gudula from Ndlovukazi asked why people were still being paid in cash when there were so many robberies reported.
“EPWP employs elderly people as well and it is not safe for them to carry money around. We were given Post Bank cards three years ago but they are still not activated. No one even updates us about what is happening with the cards. If the cards were activated this problem could have been avoided.”
Department of Public Works spokesman Mphumzi Zuzile said it was true that EPWP workers were not paid on Tuesday due to a network problem in Komani, Mount Ayliff, Kareedouw and Sterkspruit.
“The department deposited the money into the Post Office in December for the January payments, but the fault was with the Post Office’s system. It has since been fixed and workers were paid on Wednesday morning. The department employs 51 000 EPWP workers provincially and acknowledges that most of the workers are dependent on the payment, hence the money is deposited well in advance to avoid issues like this.”
Regarding the Post Bank cards, Zuzile said the department was activating the cards in phases to ensure that the workers did not incur bank charges. The next phase would start at the beginning of the next financial year, with a set number of cards to be activated.