Members of the South African National Civics Organisation (Sanco) in Ward 35 in Lower Crossroads are at loggerheads over work opportunities in the neighbourhood.
According to sources within the community, Sanco has two warring factions in the ward, with each having its preferred candidates for the cleaning opportunities provided by Masiqhame Cleaning Company. The company is responsible for the upkeep of the area, however, its work has been hindered by a raging battle between the two factions.
On Wednesday 27 March, the simmering tension reached the boiling point when a group of people who identified themselves as community leaders locked a local community hall and barricaded the entrance with tyres. They vowed to keep the facility shut until their preferred candidates were hired. They claimed a group led by Nokuzola Nyaba interfered with the recruitment process.
One of the community leaders who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of harassment said the cleaning company was supposed to start working early in February, but Nyaba and her people disrupted the processes.
“There are 30 people who received messages from the City informing them that they were hired to work as street cleaners. We verified their names as the community and when they were suppose to start working, Nyaba and her group stopped them,” she said, adding the process has been halted at least three times.
She said they feel Nyaba and her group are undermining the will of the people. As a result, Lower Crossroads is filthy she added.
She vowed that the community hall won’t operate until the matter was resolved.
Responding to the claims against her,
Nyaba who is a Sanco Treasurer, described the allegations against her as “baseless”.
She said all they want is transparency.
Explaining what led to the commotion, Nyaba said it all started after jobs were issued from the councillor’s office last month for people to apply and later brought them to the councillor’s office again.
Nyaba said a City inspector came to fetch the forms.
“Instead of (the inspector) taking the forms to the Civic Centre to be captured into the database. He took them and gave Masiqhabe cleaning company to hire people.
“So, our question is why did (the inspector) take the forms from the councillor’s office and send them straight to Masiqhame cleaning company instead of taking them to the City to be captured into the database before people were selected from it?” she asked.
Nyaba said they informed the ward councillor about the matter and tried in vain to resolve it. She said they felt the councillor was in cahoots with the other faction.
Ward 35 councillor Mboniswa Chitha confirmed a meeting with both factions, but his efforts were fruitless. He stated that the dispute is deeper than what has been alleged. “These people are from Sanco. They are fighting their own battles but using the plight of the people. I tried to intervene, but they did not listen. Then I decided to withdraw. What they are fighting for has nothing to do with me and my office,” said Chitha.
In a statement, the City of Cape Town said it was aware of the dispute, adding that it conducts a “randomised” selection process, targeting residents who are on its jobseeker database.
“In this case, given the urgency of restoring services, the City relied on an approved deviation from the standard process. This was as per the City’s policies that apply to EPWP (Extended Public Works Programme) recruitment. For example, if there is a project in a particular area and there are not enough jobseeker candidates from that area on the database, the City can conduct jobseeker drives there or recruit via an exclusion report to ensure that EPWP recruitment can be fast-tracked so that services can commence sooner,” read the statement.
It added that in these cases residents in the area who have not yet registered on the jobseeker database, but would like to work in the specific service, are encouraged to complete a jobseeker registration form.
Any remaining vacant positions will be filled from this pool of new candidates.
The registration information of the new jobseeker candidates is then added to the EPWP Jobseeker Database.