Official 'does nothing' for 7yrs
2010-01-21 10:05
Bloemfontein – A Free State department of education official who has been "doing nothing" for seven years, has written a letter to President Jacob Zuma to stop her forced loafing.
Maryna Jacobs, 37, a senior bookkeeper with 18 years of service, wrote to Zuma that she had been relieved of her duties. Every day she sat and read the newspaper as no manager spoke to her.
"It is fun to do nothing for a while. But this has been going on for seven years. It is unacceptable," she wrote to the president.
On one of the few occasions that she was given a task, she was ordered to move the furniture of a deputy director. She refused.
Jacobs said she was also asked on Wednesday to draw up the budget. This she had done two years ago.
Sometimes she played hand soccer in the office that did the purchasing of schoolbooks.
Sometimes she drove for an hour in her bakkie through the streets to get rid of her frustration. She mentioned in the letter that she had a charge of assault against her but said this was due to frustration.
Jacobs now asked Zuma to reinstate her in the position that she was supposed to be in or transfer her to an institution where she could be useful.
She said since she had pointed out tender fraud to the anti-corruption unit, she was being ignored. According to her, she was not prepared to be an accessory to the fraud.
"They want me to resign but I refuse to. Otherwise they have to offer me a severance package but they don't want to do that."
She said on Wednesday that the only person who could help her now, was Zuma. "They are making matters so difficult and uncomfortable so that I have to resign."
She wrote that she was relieved of her duties in 2003. The deputy director, P Mohoje, decided "my brain was damaged after I broke my right leg" and her job description and salary were relegated to that of a level 4-5 clerk.
Since then, her health deteriorated quickly as her work load decreased. Sometimes, she had to make payments to her medical aid.
People had described her as "crazy" but she had much time to study the State working laws and "had warned them".
"I have another 20 years to go. It is another 20 years of doing nothing."
Jacobs directed the letter to Zuma at president@po.gov.za, as well as to Jan Botes in the office of Ace Magashule, the Free State premier, and Tate Makgoe, the MEC for education.