Zille denies staff purge

2006-04-08 16:18

Cape Town - Cape Town mayor Helen Zille on Saturday denied that there had been any purge on staff at the Cape Town Civic Centre.

"Press reports that there has been a staff purge at the Civic Centre are incorrect," Zille said in a statement.

Some contract political appointees in the office of the mayor, deputy mayor and mayoral committee, whose contracts had ended on March 1, were renewed for three months by Cape Town city manager Wallace Mgoqi without reference to the new, multi-party government, explained Zille.

Mgoqi himself has been at the centre of a controversy since Zille said she intended to fire him if he did not accept her offer to renew his contract for three months.

Former ANC mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo extended Mgoqi's contract by one year, but the legality of the contract was now being contested by the DA-led city.

On Saturday, an urgent application in the Cape High Court by Mgoqi, to prevent the city council's meeting on Monday to decide on his fate, had been withdrawn, SABC radio news reported.

While Monday's meeting will go ahead, a court application to challenge the validity of decisions at the meeting would instead be heard on May 9.

On the issue of staff at the Civic Centre, Zille said the council had honoured their contract extensions.

"Yesterday (Friday) 18 of these political contract appointees were given the option of going on leave for the remainder of their contracts or work elsewhere in the Civic Centre. That is standard practice, and their departure does not constitute a purge of any kind."

Zille said some appointees of the previous government had been offered contract renewals.

The political contract appointees - except for those who were not at work on Friday - were informed personally and timeously.

"Those who were not at work had to be tracked down telephonically. This applied to Frank van der Velde who was an African National Congress (ANC) candidate and admits to working for the ANC caucus during office hours, which effectively meant he was moonlighting on ratepayers' money."

Zille said several contract employees "came and went as they pleased" and had little, if any, work to do.

"Some have not even bothered to report for duty."

Although former mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo and Mgoqi purged the city of 100 top officials at a cost of R80m to the ratepayer, the overall salary bill went up by R249m while Mfeketo was in office, Zille said.

She added that this was a direct result of political "jobs for pals".

"We have trimmed down this bureaucracy, for example by combining the office of the mayor and deputy mayor and cutting the staff from 27 to 12 contract staff members who will work full-time, every working day."

- SAPA