The South African Municipal Worker’s Union (Samwu) is kwaad about the looming dismissal of 47 LEAP officers.
Spokesperson Hlalanathi Gagayi said the City of Cape Town is firing officers without following a fair process.
“On 2 September 2024, we wrote an email to management of LEAP, objecting to what they wanted to do. The municipality had served about 47 officers with notices of Incapacity Hearing, given them bundles of evidence and then told all these officers that there will be no hearing at all, they must just say why they should not be dismissed. [It’s] a new thing that this municipality is doing.
“As indicated above, our email was responded to by the Deputy Chief of Law Enforcement, simply saying as the City, they will not afford these members a fair hearing.
“We then took the matter further, expressing our concern of unfairness on the City’s intention, wherein we even included in the email, the manager of labour relations, who is the custodian of fairness when it comes to staff discipline for the all +-34 000 City employees.
“His subordinate, a head of labour relations, replied on email, simply saying they will not afford these members a fair process. Two days later we wrote an email to the City Manager, this email was ignored. We then wrote an email to the Mayor of Cape Town on 9 September, expressing the same concerns...
“He has not responded despite the email asking his office to respond promptly. We see that the municipality does not care about fair processes when it comes to its employees, in this case the LEAP officers.”
The dismissal follows the mass expulsion of 108 LEAP officers earlier this year; their case is before the bargaining council.
“This new City attitude regarding fair processes started with the dismissal of LEAP officers earlier this year wherein 108 LEAP officers were dismissed without following a fair process,” Gagayi explained.
“At the time, we made submissions on issues, we expected a response or reply from the municipality but surprisingly, the municipality just dismissed all those members.
“The matter of the 108 dismissed LEAP officers is before the bargaining council.”
“We therefore here again call on the City, the political authority, the council and everyone who supports fair treatment of employees to speak to the City against this new trend of unfairness as it appears that another group of LEAP officers is going to be dismissed without following any fair process.”
The City confirmed the matter is currently before the bargaining council arbitration processes and they will be guided by the outcome.
mandilakhe.tshwete@inl.co.za