Durban - Opposition councillors in the eThekwini Municipality are outraged following revelations that more than R60 million meant for service delivery had been diverted to pay performance bonuses to some of the City’s workers.
Opposition parties in the council said it was hard to justify such payments in light of the poor service delivery in the City, that has left ratepayers fuming.
A budget adjustment report tabled recently showed that the City had set aside R66 million to pay performance bonuses.
It was not immediately clear whether the bonuses had already been paid and councillors said they also did not know whether these had been paid.
The latest developments come shortly after eThekwini Municipality allocated R71 million to pay performance bonuses to staff to avoid a wildcat strike by employees in December last year.
A report on those bonuses had called on the committee to approve the re-prioritisation of funds for the amount of R71 million from the overtime budget to cater for the payment of performance rewards for the 2020/21 financial years.
These “new” bonuses are also for the 2020/21 financial year.
ANC senior councillor Nkosenhle Madlala said the City acknowledged it was facing financial constraints, but previous policy meant the municipality was obliged to pay bonuses to qualifying employees.
“Because of budget constraints this was not done for the 2020/21 as well as the 2021/22 financial years. Unions took the municipality to the Bargaining Council to compel it to pay the 2020/21 bonuses. The municipality then paid only lower ranking employees to manage the budget challenge.
“When this payment was made it was not in the budget. This is the payment that is now in the Adjustment Budget, it is not new or additional budget for bonuses,” Madlala said.
He said the municipality still owed employees bonuses for the 2021/22 financial year.
“Again, these have not been paid because of budget challenges. This payment is yet to be discussed at the Bargaining Council. The municipality has since changed the policy relating to performance bonuses. In future bonuses will only be paid if the municipality can afford them.”
DA councillor Andre Beetge said the latest figure was shocking. “Possibly the most controversial (in the budget adjustment) being the allocation of funding of R66.6 million towards performance bonuses for lower salaried staff.”
He said there was no performance deserving of these performance bonuses.
“Although an entire population certainly feels the pinch of ever increasing prices on the back of rising inflation, one has to merely look around to see grass standing hip high on verges, weeds growing through asphalt in the streets, filth everywhere … municipal workers with a broom in tow while playing on a cellphone, the litter totally disregarded, or safely tucked in the shade of an overgrown tree, fast asleep waiting to be collected, tools unstained for the day, waiting to be collected, or office staff taking extended breaks while residents sit in queues …”
He said departments in the City had complained about the lack of resources, such as chains for saws, backfill materials, fuel for machines and access to parts. “Yet, despite this obvious lack in resources and the funding thereto, the City finds it appropriate to extend employees a further ‘performance bonus’ when in fact, the same employees complain that they are unable to work, as they lack these resources?
“Instead increase resources, improve productivity, realise that a job entails work as well, and earn the bonus by positive action, not strike action,” he said.
IFP councillor Mdu Nkosi said issuing bonuses, in light of the current levels of service delivery, was offensive to ratepayers. “Residents complain that there is no grass cutting, there is sewage running in the street and power outages are commonplace.”
Nkosi said the City should not be paying bonuses when residents are not happy. “How can they be encouraged to pay for services when they are not happy,” he said.
Patrick Pillay of the Democratic Liberal Congress (DLC) said that giving performance bonuses to employees during a period when service delivery is at its lowest is tantamount to blatant abuse of ratepayers’ funds.
“There is no substantiated justification for these performance bonuses. Almost every department has not achieved their service delivery or budget implementation plans. The Auditor-General has lambasted the City for its non-performance. How can the City manager now reward employees for poor service delivery,” said Pillay.
“The DLC has said that it is unacceptable for ratepayers to receive mediocre or poor service from the City.”