eThekwini Employee Suspended in 2019 Still Gets Full Salary 4 Years Later As Municipality Fails to Settle Case

• The eThekwini municipality has kept an employee on suspension for over four years after failing to resolve a disciplinary issue
• The employee has been sitting at home earning a full monthly salary while doing no work at all
• The issue was escalated to the eThekwini mayor and city manager, who allegedly made no effort to help

DURBAN - An eThekwini municipality employee is still enjoying the benefits of a full salary even though he has been suspended since 2019.

The man has been sitting at home for four years because senior management allegedly perpetually extended his suspension after failing to charge and discipline him numerous times.

In an email, the employee reported the unending suspension to eThekwini City Manager Musa Mbhelu and Mayor Mxolisi Launda, but nothing was done to address the issue.

According to IOL, the employee, Mlungisi Professor Nkwanyana, sent the email in November 2022 detailing how his troubles began.

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Union meeting and leave sparks employee trouble

The ordeal started Nkwanyana, a statistics and support officer in the municipality's embattled electricity unit, butted heads with unit head Maxwell Mthembu.

The electricity unit head allegedly called a meeting with the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) to discuss issues within the unit.

Nkwanyana said Mthembu asked him to leave the meeting because he was meant to be on leave. When Nkwanyana refused to leave, informing his boss that his leave was not approved, Mthembu continued to insist. Nkwanyana allegedly stood his ground and didn't leave the meeting.

eThekwini employee suspended for insubordination

The employee was later called into the office of the Deputy Head of Customer Services, Phumzile Sibisi, on 31 January 2019, who gave him a suspension letter over the exchange.

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Nkwanyana's suspension was lifted on 10 February, but only if he worked for Customer Services for three to six months.

The back and forth continued, with charges being laid against Nkwanyana, which were later withdrawn. In the final stroke in this convoluted tale of employee discipline, the employee was again suspended for helping Durban Solid Waste employees with work grievances in July 2022.

The municipality claims employee issue is being investigated

Responding to the allegations, eThekwnini municipality's Head of Communications, Lindiwe Khuzwayo, said that Nkwanyana was placed on precautionary suspension for six months with full pay for an internal disciplinary matter which ended in March 2023.

Khuzwayo added when he returned to work, another dispute arose. The communications head claimed the matter was being investigated

DA slams Eastern Cape health department for paying R67 million to 45 hospital staff “for doing nothing”

Briefly News previously reported that the Democratic Alliance (DA) took aim at the Eastern Cape Health Department for paying R67 million to 45 staff members who haven't worked in two years.

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The Orsmond Tuberculosis Hospital in Kareiga closed almost two years ago. Despite not servicing patients, workers continued receiving their salaries, TimesLIVE reported.

After the hospital closed, the 45 employees refused to be allocated to other medical facilities in the district.

Source: Briefly News