Pretoria - Tshwane employees will, in future, have to meet 100% of their duties instead of 60% before they can qualify for notch bonuses.
This, is in accordance with a new policy amendment passed by the council at its ordinary sitting yesterday.
However, councillors from opposition parties were left disgruntled and frustrated because some of them could not vote on the “unconducive virtual council meetings”.
Others argued that the DA-led administration failed to consult them before asking them to vote on such a critical matter.
Council speaker Dr Murunwa Makwarela announced that 104 members voted for the adoption of the Individual Performance Management Policy for Permanent Employees, while 36 voted against and five abstained.
Makwarela said while some councillors were still trying to assist in making their votes, others were still venting their frustration with the integrity of the virtual voting processes.
Prior to the voting, mayor Randall Williams said the amendment was necessary and crucial to the City providing service delivery to the people and ensuring that only deserving workers received notch bonuses because they executed 100% of their duties and did not leave 40% of their duties undone.
According to a report presented to the council on the subject of creating a culture of high performance, it is a generally accepted principle that in any business, what cannot be measured, cannot be done.
It was stated in the report that in a number of engagements with officials at all levels in the City, it had clearly emerge that performance standards had dropped to unprecedented levels resulting in compromised service delivery.
A desktop analysis showed that the main contributor to this behaviour was the lack of, or the absence of, a performance management system.
“Performance management is not punitive by default; it aims at ensuring that there is a direct link between the strategic objectives of the City, its Integrated Development Plan, service delivery and budget implementation plan, business plans, key performance areas and what is being done on the ground.
“The current state of affairs in the City defies all this logic. Second to managing performance based on the set standards and agreed outcomes, is the development element of it.
“This simply means that where gaps are identified, there must be a deliberate method of ensuring that officials are assisted in improving their skills and experience in their various fields. Based on this, the inculcation of a culture of high performance in the City becomes a non-negotiable,” stated the report.
However, ANC chief whip Aaron Maluleka said the resistance was not because other members did not want workers not to fulfil their duties but found it frustrating that Wlliams and his executive did not afford the house an opportunity to enquire and make inputs on the amendment that is now set to be implemented, effective from Friday, July 1.
Chairperson of the EFF in Tshwane, Obakeng Ramabodu, said they told the DA-led administration that, one day, his party would be in government.
He said the DA would be the opposition, and the EFF would do to them what they did because they were well aware that the virtual meetings
were not working but simply did not care.
“The speaker is being dictated to by the mayor because they do not want to deal with confrontation.
“They want to mute us when we confront them about these important issues.
“They know very well that the regulations that came with the Covid-19 pandemic have been lifted, but they just want to hold meetings like this so they can do as they please.”
Pretoria News