The ANC-run eThekwini Municipality has been paying an employee to sit at home since January 2019 allegedly because no one was able to resolve his case.
The employee has been sitting at home and getting his full pay while senior managers kept on extending his suspension after failing to correctly charge and discipline him.
The matter was reported to City Manager, Musa Mbhelu and Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda, among others and it appears they all did nothing to resolve the matter.
This is contained in an email seen by which was written by an employee identified as Mlungisi Professor Nkwanyana, a statistics and support officer within the troubled electricity unit of the municipality.
Nkwanyana’s letter was written in November 2022 and it appears that neither Mbhele nor Kaunda took action or at least responded to him about the way forward.
Stating his case in the letter, Nkwanyana alleged that his troubles started when he locked horns with Maxwell Mthembu, the under-fire head of the electricity unit.
He alleged that Mthembu called a meeting with Samwu to address issues they had as employees of the unit.
“At the very beginning of that meeting, Maxwell asked me to leave the meeting on the basis that he thought I was on leave. I refused to leave that meeting simple (sic) because I was not on leave at all but I had applied for leave. But at the time when (the) meeting took place, my leave was not approved. I had produced evidence to him showing that I was not on leave. I even went on email (sic) requesting to cancel the requested leave but Maxwell still insisted that I leave the meeting and I refused with reasons,” Nkwanyana said in the email to Mbhele and Kaunda.
Furthermore, Nkwanyana alleged that on January 31 2019, he was called to a meeting by Phumzile Sibisi Deputy, the Head of Customer Services, who gave him a suspension letter over his exchange with Mthembu.
On 10 February 2019, his suspension was lifted on the condition that he worked for Customer Services for a period of between 3 and 6 months. This was while the municipality was investigating his case.
He said he was later charged, but the charges were withdrawn and he later learnt that he was being sacrificed for a senior Samwu unionist in eThekwini.
He concluded his email by saying Mthembu later came back and suspended him for assisting Durban Solid Waste (DSW) employees who had some undisclosed work grievances in July 2022.
“I was suspended again by Maxwell Mthembu this time for assisting DSW to solution to their problem they had, ” Nkwanyana said.
The head of communications in the municipality, Lindiwe Khuzwayo, said Nkwanyana’s case is being investigated after he was suspended when another case arose.
“The employee was on precautionary suspension for six months with full pay for an internal disciplinary matter. This suspension ended in March 2023. Upon his return to work, another internal dispute arose. The matter, which is also between employer and employee, is currently being investigated,” Khuzwayo said.
Nkwanyana declined to comment.
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