Mzingisi Nkungwana has reacted to criticism and allegations that he refused to pay workers. He tells OFM News that he remains firm to his position that the situation involving the payment or non-payment of the political staff members needs to be looked into, whether their appointments are above board and legal.

Nkungwana denies that he ever made promises of payment to the political staff and, in fact, Nkungwana in his reply to OFM News' questions elaborates that he never did such. On Friday, Nkungwana and Head of Cooperative Governance (Cogta), Mokete Duma, met with irate workers following a protest which led to the closure of all entrances to the Metro’s headquarters and rendered that institution not operational.

Also read: #BreakingNews: Mangaung's employees up in arms - VIDEO

“I have always maintained that once all facts were verified and all investigations concluded, I would not deny payments to workers not in dispute, so I have never reneged from any decision. I found a situation which was problematic and I needed to satisfy myself that payment or non-payment of these salaries was above board and legal. This remains my view and that is why I directed the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) not to pay disputed workers and those not verified. To this end, there are still workers who claim that they were not paid, which means this problem persists,” he says.

On Tuesday, the embattled metro finally made payments to political staff after they once again embarked on a protest on Monday.

Also read: Mangaung finally pays political staff

The workers were paid following the intervention of Duma, who attended to the calls of workers on Monday during the protest. There are allegations that factional politics are at the heart of the problem, with a clique of individuals aligning themselves to the Radical Economic Transformation (RET) programme of action of the African National Congress (ANC), and a clique of individuals aligning themselves to President Cyril Ramaphosa's slogan of good governance called Thuma Mina, having a go at each other.

Somehow the workers alleged that it’s disputed that there are two lists of political staff members. It’s said a first list was drafted and approved by almost every office at the metro but things took a turn when this list was allegedly altered by some officials who have since joined the political infighting. But asked if he is aware of the lists, Nkungwana tells OFM News that “I have never seen two lists, I don’t know what you are talking about”.

The metro is under administration following the government’s decision in December 2019 to subject it to such after it failed to perform its function of basic service delivery. This metro was the first metro to be placed under administration. It is the only metro to adopt an unfunded budget for the years 2018/19 and 2019/20.

Also read: Mangaung only metro to adopt an unfunded budget

In August 2019, the rating agency, Moody's Investors Service downgraded the municipality's long-term global scale issuer, rating it B3 from Ba3 with a negative outlook, following a review initiated in May.

Also read: Mangaung to release statement on Moody's downgrade

Moody's said the three-notch downgrade reflects the Free State municipality's weak and rapidly declining liquidity position, which recently led to a failure to service commercial bank debt on time, implying a relatively high probability of default in future.

OFM News