Municipality turns to court to correct bungled employment

Nketoana seeks court permission to fire staff it hired unlawfully

- By Boitumelo Kgobotlo

The Nketoana Local Municipality has turned to the Free State High Court to dismiss a total of 74 general workers it says it hired unlawfully.

According to court papers, the municipality wants the appointments invalidated and set aside after it hired 71 people, more employees than advertised. The chief financial officer, Jabulani Makubu, had red-flagged the hiring as irregular. In May, Sunday World reported that the municipality had advertised only 43 posts, but it is unclear how it ended up with the 28 more people.

Makubu said this would cost the municipality at least R3.62-million per annum in basic salaries. In the court papers that