R94 000 overtime for guard
2009-11-11 22:42
Sanelisiwe Shamase
Pietermaritzburg - Individual overtime claims at the Msunduzi municipality have reached shocking proportions and evidence indicates that many security staffers are getting away with earning fat-cat salaries at ratepayers' expense.
According to a list of just 36 of the municipality's many security personnel, singular overtime claims per person for July and August range from R3 731.56 to R53 980.74. These amounts exclude basic pay.
In one case, one of deputy mayor Mervyn Dirks's bodyguards pocketed R45 578.49 for overtime in July, while August saw him take home an overtime amount of R47 988.95. This adds up to an individual overtime total of R93 567.44 in just two months.
A bodyguard for Mayor Zanele Hlatshwayo received R37 534.70 for overtime in July and his August overtime pay reached R46 592.88. His two-month individual overtime total amounted to R84 127.58.
Guard in training pocketed big bucks
Another employee earned R31 933.72 in July and R53 980.74 in August, bringing his two-month total to R85 914.46.
Another received R34 327.86 for July and R39 983.58 in August, which amounted to R74 311.44.
September salary slips in The Witness's possession tell the same story.
A security officer in training pocketed R39 085.20 in overtime, almost four times his basic monthly salary of R10 245.55. His gross earnings for the month were R52 270.55.
Even refuse collectors are coining it. One managed to pocket R15 030.40 in overtime for September, a major boost to his basic monthly salary of R5 328.12. He grossed a tidy R21 371.07 for that month.
Overspent on budget
Last month, The Witness reported that the municipality had already spent R25m of its R33.5m overtime budget barely three months into the new financial year.
Hlatshwayo said at the time: "It seems to be unregulated and it is all over the place in waste, in traffic, in security."
At the end of the 2008/09 financial year, The Witness reported that the municipality managed to exceed its R43.4m overtime budget by a whopping R22.5m.
Asked to comment about the municipality's poor financial discipline, Dirks - who is acting mayor in Hlatshwayo's absence - said it is an administrative issue that the relevant managers should comment on.
Deputy municipal manager for community services Zwe Hulane referred The Witness to municipal manager Rob Haswell for comment, but Haswell did not respond by the time of publishing.
Attempts to get a response from the municipality's chief financial officer, Roy Bridgmohan, were also unsuccessful.
10 hours+ overtime illegal
According to the Labour Relations Act, it is illegal for employees to work more than 10 hours of overtime a week.
In a report by Haswell on October 8, titled "Reduction Overtime Expenditure", he admits that the municipality is contravening the act and spending too much on overtime.
"From a budget of R33.5m for the 09/10 year, we have only some R8m left, and many employees are working for more than the maximum 10 hours of overtime per week as prescribed in the act," wrote Haswell.
"I'm absolutely horrified," said DA councillor Bill Lambert.
He told The Witness his party has raised the overtime issue constantly in Exco meetings, and Haswell was ordered to bring a report to Exco explaining how he is going to save council's overtime money.
"If it was known that these people were exceeding the legal overtime limits, why was it not acted upon? This is a joke that's not even funny," he said.
IFP councillor Dolo Zondi said he had asked Exco in the past to get an assessment risk level that would probe whether bodyguards are indeed necessary.
"It's not opposition parties that are threatening them. They need bodyguards to protect them from people in their own party."
- The Witness