Samwu demands access to Manase report

The SA Municipal Workers Union is demanding access to the full controversial Manase forensic audit report on fraud and corruption in the eThekweni municipality.

Speaking ahead of a march by about 2000 municipal workers in Durban, Samwu's regional secretary Nhlanhla Nyandeni said that the union leadership had yet to receive a copy of the report.

"We want a copy of that report to see what is happening."

It is one of the demands that was due to be presented in a memorandum that would be handed over at the Durban city hall later on Friday.

He said that the union had been demanding a copy of the report from KwaZulu-Natal co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) MEC Nomusa Dube for some time.

"If Cogta persistently fails to pressurise the municipality to release a full report, that leaves us with a perception that Cogta is protecting the individuals implicated therein, which stands to disappoint us as a progressive union," read the memorandum.

The eThekweni municipality has refused to release the full contents of the Manase forensic report on fraud and corruption.

An abridged version of the report was released by KwaZulu-Natal co-operative governance MEC Nomusa Dube in February. The City was supposed to release the full contents in July.

The Manase probe was instituted after Auditor General Terence Nombembe said in his 2009/10 report that R532 million had been irregularly spent by the eThekweni municipality.

The investigation also contained accusations against a number of senior officials. It found that 10 councillors had business interests with entities which conducted business with the eThekwini Municipality.

The municipal workers, who first gathered at Durban's Currie's Fountain stadium, started marching through the city centre shortly after midday on Friday.

Apart from the demand to release the full Manase report, they are also protesting against the SA Local Government Association (Salga's) intention to appeal against a labour court ruling.

Earlier this year, the labour court upheld a wage curve agreement between the collective bargaining parties, signed in April 2010.

Under the agreement, some workers would receive back pay from September 2009.

The union is also demanding that the municipality address the number of positions being filled in an acting capacity. The memorandum demands that if the positions have to be filled in an acting capacity, that they be filled "in line with [a] transformative agenda".

It is also demanding that "an undue, long-term acting of our white colleagues in particular be terminated as a matter of urgency" and that temporary staff be made permanent.

A heavy police presence comprising many officers, Nyala riot vehicles and a water cannon accompanied the marchers.