Johannesburg - The City of Joburg is set to advertise 120 political posts following the pending exit of former ANC political staffers after the DA-led coalition took over the administration of the council.
The disputed fixed term contracts of the employees ends on April 30 and on May 1 new political staffers are expected to resume work and service new political parties in the City of Joburg’s Council chambers.
This was revealed by the MMC for corporate and shared services Leah Knott and acting municipal manager Mesuli Mlandu during a media briefing at the mayor’s office on Friday.
Mlandu told the media that lawyers for the 120 former ANC political staff members and the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) have separately failed to meet deadlines to review the City of Joburg’s decision to end their clients’ contracts on April 30.
Mlandu said Samwu asked for a meeting to discuss the matter on Wednesday but failed to pitch. Lawyers for the political staff also requested a meeting yesterday but also failed to attend.
“There is no one who made an application to the Speaker of council to review. There is no party that approached the council for it to review that decision. We were not even served with court papers about the matters.
“It was on that basis that I gave a directive to the human resources to go ahead with the notices. If I failed, I would have exposed myself to a disciplinary action by the council,” Mlandu added.
He said the City of Joburg would start issuing adverts for political posts in various newspapers and online media to allow people to apply. These included the affected 120 former ANC staffers.
Knott corroborated Mlandu, saying the ANC failed to defend the decision of their former mayoral committee to convert the fixed-term contracts of the political staff into permanent contracts.
“They knew the agenda of the council on February 21, but they failed to come and defend that decision. They were aware that it was unlawful,” Knott said
She further said: “This is about righting the wrong of an unlawful decision taken by the previous mayoral committee of the ANC-led government, which was not about prioritising service delivery or protecting vulnerable employees: it was about cadre deployment at the expense of residents.
“R80 million a year to be precise. Let me be clear on what we mean by political employees: every political head of government, from mayors to MMCs, presidents and ministers, to Speakers and party caucuses within legislatures, require political staff to advise and run their offices.
“All of these employees across every sphere of government are employed on fixed-term contracts linked to the term of office of their politician. If the politician goes – they go,” she said.
Knott said elections changed the composition of legislatures, saying: “Yesterday you had 120 seats and could employ a proportional number of staff to support them. Today you have 90 seats and the proportion of staff changes.”
She said in 2021 the ANC saw the writing on the wall, and attempted to protect their people by unlawfully changing this convention which was protected in City policy.
“Political staff who are advisers, directors, media liaisons, office managers, researchers and the like who responded to adverts that are clearly stated as fixed to the term of the political principal, and who signed contracts that clearly stated fixed-term, were given an opportunity of permanent employment that was never the mayoral committee’s authority to give.
“This blanket approach of the mayoral committee included the staff who support the various party caucuses in council, including the DA, EFF, IFP, and others.
“These staff are in no way linked to service delivery. Despite claims in the media, no one has come forward with proof to the contrary.
“It must be clear that all the affected staff still have their fixed-term contracts. None of them signed permanent contracts. All they received was a letter offering a conversion of their contract.
“No formal permanent contract was entered into,” Knott stressed in her reaction to planned action by Sanco, Samwu and other organisations to protest against the City’s decision on March 25.
Political Bureau