Metros can't keep staff

14 June 2016 - 08:56 By FARREN COLLINS and KHULEKANI MAGUBANE

South Africa's municipalities have a staggering 41,303 staff vacancies, while six of the country's metros make up the majority of the worst-affected councils. This is according to raw data from Statistics SA, which released its non-financial municipal census last week. But the number of vacancies had been higher in 2014 - 44 869.Metros are given considerable financial independence and capacity to service large populations in cities, making their high vacancy number more conspicuous.The vacancies undermine the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs' "Back To Basics" master plan to rescue local government and improve service delivery.Among its findings, Stats SA noted that the number of vacancies in the Mangaung metropolitan municipality soared from 1995 in 2014 to 3905 in 2015. According to Stats SA spokesman Patrick Naidoo, the city cited the implementation of a new "micro structure" and the creation of two new directorates as reasons for the increase.Another major metro, the City of Cape Town, had 2757 vacant posts last year, despite recently reporting that it significantly failed to reach its own employment equity targets.Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs spokesman Legadima Leso said: "The directive from our department is that all positions must be filled so that work continues."But SA Municipal Workers Union spokesman Papikie Mohale said: "Municipalities should be ashamed and embarrassed that in the midst of the country's unemployment, municipal vacancy rates are at such levels. The youth are the most affected, which is why they are mainly targets of exploitative programmes such as [the] extended public works programme ."Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality managed to reduce its number of vacancies from 2820 to 2751.City of Ekurhuleni spokesman Zweli Dlamini said the vacancies had no impact on finance and administration departments in the metro as "measures were put in place to address capacity issues through fixed-term contracts".eThekwini also managed to reduce its vacancies - from 3297 in 2014 to 1313 in 2015...

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