ActionSA in Ekurhuleni welcomes the long-awaited Institutional review and staff establishment plan, which was drafted after the election of the 2021-2026 term. The report was approved by Council yesterday, 28 November 2024.
The reports that served before council present a new structure to streamline the work of the City.
Previously the City had 23 senior managers reporting to the City Manager, which created an untenable situation which was not conducive to effective governance, accountability and service delivery. The new structure will have 13 senior managers focused on infrastructure services, social services, economic development, core functions like regulatory approvals, policy and compliance and finally, transversal and administration functions which will support the City’s internal operations.
Of importance, is the merging of the Service Delivery Coordination and Strategy & Corporate Planning, and the newly established Chief Operations Officer (COO) that will be tasked with championing service delivery, and instilling checks and balances on HODs who must meet certain levels of standards, something championed by ActionSA during this process.
Comments by National Treasury on Structural Reforms: We welcome this move. This is a step towards the right direction for critical Departments such as Water and Sanitation, Energy and Solid Waste. The intention here would be to adopt a new operating structure, with treasury suggesting municipally owned entities to improve governance as well as build up internal capacity and end reliance on tenders. This bodes well for insourcing workers.
Further to this, that Contracted Services is currently at 11% of the Total Operating expenditure Budget which is contrary to the 5% National Treasury Threshold. This means there is room to insource workers such as security guards and cleaners, what is lacking is political will from Mayor Xhakaza and his loose-knit group of MMC’s from various parties.
We also noted that there are 100 vacant and funded positions for security guards in this report.
ActionSA demands that these be prioritised for immediate advertisement and insourcing of security guards, immediately!
Moreover, there are 340 vacant and funded positions in the real estate department which must be prioritised for cleaning services, and a further 1124 vacant funded positions which must be prioritised for Waste Workers.
This will most certainly decrease the 11% threshold and ensure that we are within the 30% range of total OPEX buaget.
Potentially, the City will be saving R53,8 Billion, and saving R34,3 Billion. This demonstrates that the City can, in fact, insource the much-needed internal capacity such as Security, Cleaning and Solid Waste.
The City will now have its own Public Protector, the City’s first Ombudsman: We welcome this important move. The Ombudsman will be an independent office and will report directly to Council in line with the principles of Separation of Powers.
Bloated political offices: We note this with concern. Political offices should be lean and designed to assist political heads and carry out policy. Our view is that the increase in the number of positions in the Mayor’s, Speaker’s and MMC’s offices is completely unnecessary and simply used to employ more cadres. We also note the concerns of the MEC as that it exceeds the required number for a Category A Municipality.
ActionSA insists that the City’s finances need to be stabilised, the institutional review rapidly implemented, and quality services delivered to the residents as soon as possible.
This will require a stable government based on competence as opposed to political expedience. To this end, ActionSA is willing to work with parties that share our values and will support proposals that will lead to stability in the City until the 2026 elections.
City of Ekurhuleni finally Passes Institutional Review to Fastrack Service Delivery and Insource Workers!
ActionSA in Ekurhuleni welcomes the long-awaited Institutional review and staff establishment plan, which was drafted after the election of the 2021-2026 term. The report was approved by Council yesterday, 28 November 2024.
The reports that served before council present a new structure to streamline the work of the City.
Previously the City had 23 senior managers reporting to the City Manager, which created an untenable situation which was not conducive to effective governance, accountability and service delivery. The new structure will have 13 senior managers focused on infrastructure services, social services, economic development, core functions like regulatory approvals, policy and compliance and finally, transversal and administration functions which will support the City’s internal operations.
Of importance, is the merging of the Service Delivery Coordination and Strategy & Corporate Planning, and the newly established Chief Operations Officer (COO) that will be tasked with championing service delivery, and instilling checks and balances on HODs who must meet certain levels of standards, something championed by ActionSA during this process.
Comments by National Treasury on Structural Reforms: We welcome this move. This is a step towards the right direction for critical Departments such as Water and Sanitation, Energy and Solid Waste. The intention here would be to adopt a new operating structure, with treasury suggesting municipally owned entities to improve governance as well as build up internal capacity and end reliance on tenders. This bodes well for insourcing workers.
Further to this, that Contracted Services is currently at 11% of the Total Operating expenditure Budget which is contrary to the 5% National Treasury Threshold. This means there is room to insource workers such as security guards and cleaners, what is lacking is political will from Mayor Xhakaza and his loose-knit group of MMC’s from various parties.
We also noted that there are 100 vacant and funded positions for security guards in this report.
ActionSA demands that these be prioritised for immediate advertisement and insourcing of security guards, immediately!
Moreover, there are 340 vacant and funded positions in the real estate department which must be prioritised for cleaning services, and a further 1124 vacant funded positions which must be prioritised for Waste Workers.
This will most certainly decrease the 11% threshold and ensure that we are within the 30% range of total OPEX buaget.
Potentially, the City will be saving R53,8 Billion, and saving R34,3 Billion. This demonstrates that the City can, in fact, insource the much-needed internal capacity such as Security, Cleaning and Solid Waste.
The City will now have its own Public Protector, the City’s first Ombudsman: We welcome this important move. The Ombudsman will be an independent office and will report directly to Council in line with the principles of Separation of Powers.
Bloated political offices: We note this with concern. Political offices should be lean and designed to assist political heads and carry out policy. Our view is that the increase in the number of positions in the Mayor’s, Speaker’s and MMC’s offices is completely unnecessary and simply used to employ more cadres. We also note the concerns of the MEC as that it exceeds the required number for a Category A Municipality.
ActionSA insists that the City’s finances need to be stabilised, the institutional review rapidly implemented, and quality services delivered to the residents as soon as possible.
This will require a stable government based on competence as opposed to political expedience. To this end, ActionSA is willing to work with parties that share our values and will support proposals that will lead to stability in the City until the 2026 elections.