Pretoria - The City of Tshwane has dismissed media reports claiming that it spent R15 million on take-aways for its employees in one month.
“The allegations are devoid of any truth, malicious and deliberately spread to discredit the management of the city and to mislead the public.
“It is unfortunate that a public representative would shamelessly stoop this low by making such reprehensible allegations without bothering to establish the facts,” the city said in a statement.
The city explained that the R15 million was the three-year budgeted amount and not a monthly expenditure, as had been reported in the media.
According to the city, the actual expenditure between August 2013 to date is R4 308 656.20. The three-year R15 million tender is effective from August 2013 to July 2016.
The city also explained that food parcels are only issued if an employee who is on “standby” is called out to perform duties for a period longer than four hours continuously and if the employee has missed a meal during that time period.
The reason for this is because the employee cannot be expected to take time off to purchase food while attending to a power failure.
The food parcel is basically a ration packet that contains non-perishable products to ensure a long shelf life since it is purchased in bulk and only drawn from the store if and when required. The packets are only issued for unplanned overtime (power failures and other emergency overtime) and only if a meal is missed, the city said.
The provision of food parcels to energy and electricity technicians is part of council policy arising from negotiations between the employer and labour unions.
An employee who is on “standby” is expected to be reachable at any given time and be within the proximity of 30km radius from the workplace.
“We implore the media to be responsible and circumspect when fed unsubstantiated gossip and attempt to verify the information before going to print and/ or broadcast.
“The Communication Division of the City requested more time until this morning to confirm the allegations, but some of the media outlets went ahead and published the sensational allegations,” the city said. – SAnews.gov.za
