peterVusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor
TSHOLOTSHO Rural District Council which recently bought its chief executive officer, Mr Nkululeko Sibanda, a top of the range Toyota GD6 twin cab, is reportedly dodging paying its former employees that were either dismissed or resigned over the past three years.
The council has been hit by a number of resignations and dismissals since 2019, with the initial resignation being that of the former chief executive officer, Mr Themba Moyo. According to council sources, four senior officers and two juniors left the local authority in the past three years and are owed more than US$180 000.
The employees’ efforts to seek reprieve from the RDC have, however, hit a brick wall, with the local authority saying it was already facing cash flow challenges.
“We have tried to engage the local authority, in particular the council chairperson, Clr Esau Siwela and the CEO but with no luck, as they tell us they are cash strapped.
What surprises us is that instead they have bought a GD6 for the CEO, we hear more perks are coming, while councillors are set to receive motorbikes, this is a council that is saying it is broke. As former employees we wouldn’t want to approach the courts of law to force them to pay us because we will cripple the council, if only they could just come up with a payment plan to pay us, that is all we are asking for,” said one of the former employees who declined to be named.
Contacted for comment, Clr Siwela professed ignorance on the alleged impasse saying as far as he was concerned all the former employees were being handled above board. He accused unnamed individuals of trying to tarnish the image of the RDC by peddling unsubstantiated allegations against them.
“The truth is all the issues relating to our former employees are being handled accordingly. It is only our former CEO where he resigned through his lawyers, at a time when he was facing allegations of prejudicing council. When he came to claim his money we advised him to come with his lawyers so that we calculate how much he owes council and how much we owe him but nothing has happened.
Besides that one case all the other former employees’ issues are being handled, the only hold up was caused by the Covid-19 pandemic which delayed a lot of council functions. If these former employees are saying we are not paying them, not even one of them has approached us with those allegations,” said Clr Siwela.
He said it was not fair for people to bring up the issue of the council buying the CEO a vehicle, saying at the moment most of the council fleet was not working hence it had become difficult for him to conduct council duties.
“Most of our council fleet is broken down and our CEO was failing to conduct council duties hence our decision to purchase this vehicle. I think there are people who are just focused on damaging the local authority’s image. In this case of our former employees that approached us, there is no such thing, who did they approach, when did they approach us, there is no such thing at all,” he said.
Online Reporter