SDM council withdraws employees from China delegation

JANE FURSE – Sekhukhune District Municipality convened the 2024/2025 first quarter Mayoral Lekgotla at Makhuduthamaga municipal council chamber on Monday, 11 November.

Addressing the gathering, Executive Mayor Minah Bahula, remarked that the municipal council has resolved to withdraw municipal employees from the delegation that went on a six-month study programme in China.

Also, the lekgotla heard that twelve shop stewards were elected through the elective meetings of the South African Municipal Workers Union in the municipality recently.

Bahula congratulated the shop stewards and pointed out that they are looking forward to work collectively with them to ensure that the municipality enjoys labour peace.

She stated that they have lamented in almost all their performance Lekgotlas on the dysfunctionality of the Local Labour Force (LLF).

“We call on all the LLF parties to play their part. Workers cannot resort to illegal labour actions when the constitutional structures to deal with their issues are well placed,” said Bahula.

Bahula indicated that the negative development on the China matter can also be attributed to the dysfunctionality of the LLF.

She said the issue was supposed to be thoroughly ironed out at that level so that the outcomes in terms of the delegation and policy dynamics would be clear and open to everyone.

“It is unfortunate that the municipal council was forced to take this unpopular yet necessary decision while employees were already in China. The municipality takes matters of capacity building very seriously. We annually allocate bursaries to employees, regularly send out employees to attend workshops and short courses with the aim of empowering them, not for any other thing including financial gains. We will deal with the China matter internally to ensure a logical conclusion,” entailed Bahula.

We asked about reasons for the withdrawal of the municipal employees from the China delegation, Lemson Moropjane, SDM spokesperson, promised Sekhukhune Times to check for the facts and provide a response. Moropjane had not responded at the time of going to press. 

Furthermore, the executive mayor highlighted that they closed their 2023/2024 financial year on a high note compared to the previous financial period as they managed to achieve 142 of the 203 targets of the municipality, which constitutes 70% of the overall performance.

Bahula indicated that they also set for themselves a 100% performance target for the 2024/2025 financial year.

“We dare not fail ourselves. We committed to prioritise forward planning and judicious implementation of targets. I expect maximum performance from the departmental reports. We cannot indicate left and turn right,” stated Bahula.

The Lekgotla brings together all mayors, municipal managers and senior officials to review performance targets and ensure the district is on track with its commitments to communities.