Cape Town - The SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) has expressed its concern over the looming dismissal of 47 Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP) officers.
Spokesperson Hlalanathi Gagayi said the officers were being fired without the City following a fair process.
It follows the termination of 58 LEAP officers’ contracts in February, after the officers allegedly failed their driving assessments and did not comply with requirements to carry a firearm.
“On September 2, 2024, we wrote an email to the management of LEAP, objecting to what they wanted to do.
“The municipality had served about 47 officers with notices of Incapacity
Hearing, given them bundles of evidence and then told all these officers that there will be no hearing at all. They must just say why they should not be dismissed, a new thing that this municipality is doing.
“As indicated above, our email was responded to by the deputy chief of Law Enforcement, saying as the City they will not afford these members a fair hearing as submitted by us.
“We then took up the matter further, expressing our concern on unfairness on the City’s intention, wherein we even included in the email the manager of labour relations, who is the custodian of fairness when it comes to staff discipline for the all plus-minus 34 000 City employees.
“His subordinate, a head of labour relations, replied on email, simply saying they will not afford these members a fair process.
“Two days later we wrote an email to the city manager. This email was simply ignored.
“We then wrote an email to the mayor of Cape Town on September 9, expressing concerns wherein the city manager ignored emails raising staff issues, and this issue of LEAP officers who are refused a fair hearing was raised but again he has not responded despite the email asking his office to respond promptly as we see that the municipality does not care about fair processes when it comes to its employees, in this case the LEAP officers.”
At least 108 LEAP officers have been expelled this year.
Their cases are before the bargaining council.
“This new City attitude regarding fair processes started with the dismissal of LEAP officers earlier this year, when 108 LEAP officers were dismissed without following a fair process,” Gagayi said.
“At the time we made submissions on issues, we expected a response or reply from the municipality but surprisingly the municipality just dismissed all those members.
“We therefore here, again, call on the City of Cape Town, the political authority, the council and everyone who supports fair treatment of employees to speak to the City against this new trend of unfairness as it appears that another group of LEAP officers is going to be dismissed without following any fair process.”
The City confirmed the matter was before the bargaining council arbitration processes and they will be guided by the outcome.