Africa-Press – South-Africa. The ANC in Johannesburg believes it had the legal right to convert the fixed-term contracts of its junior political staff to permanent appointments, and it has accused the DA of hypocrisy.
It claims the DA is hiring people who have no qualifications, adding that Mabine Seabe was hired as the head of communications, at a director level, in Mayor Mpho Phalatse’s office, even though he has no bachelor’s degree.
Seabe’s LinkedIn profile states that he has an incomplete Bachelor of Arts degree at Unisa in 2009. He is a former DA member who previously served as an acting communications director for the party. He was a spokesperson for former DA leader Mmusi Maimane.
Phalatse’s chief of staff, Mike Moriarty , told News24 on Friday that the City’s talent acquisition policy was followed when Seabe was hired.
Although he confirmed Seabe did not have a bachelor’s degree, he said Seabe had the necessary skills to perform the job.
“In appointing Mabine Seabe, we followed the policy for talent acquisition to the letter, so we are within policy. The fact is that when we are looking for the head for the mayor’s communications [team], the policy recognises the importance of that office and gives the mayor and myself the latitude of headhunting.
“If a person happens not to have a qualification that is of a particular job grading level…we can supplement any qualification, skills, expertise for any lack that there might be in a qualification,” Moriarty said.
He added that extensive research was conducted on Seabe’s work and previous skills.
“From our point of view, we are confident that he is more capable of doing the job and from the mayor’s perspective, yes. Everyone we consulted said yes, he could do the job.
Seabe has been asked to obtain the qualification, Moriarty said.
ANC contract conversion debacle
In a press conference on Thursday, Phalatse said that the ANC had, twice in 2021, pushed through approvals for fixed-term contract conversions.
Phalatse said these were political positions that were never intended for conversion.
She said a legal opinion her office sought stated that the ANC had no right in law to approve the conversions.
The move was sanctioned by a mayoral committee from which the ANC had majority support.
Last week, the Joburg council passed a resolution to reverse the conversion.
The City has since sent notices to the 130 staffers, asking them to make representations.
The staffers claim that there is a political witchhunt against them by the new multiparty-led coalition government.
They have refused to respond to the notices and the City is investigating the matter.
ANC claims the legal right
On Friday, the ANC said former Joburg mayor Geoff Makhubo sought a legal opinion before allowing his mayoral committee to approve the contract conversions.
“These employees were converted to permanent employees through a legitimate process undertaken by the mayoral committee. This decision was made public and known to everyone and every political party within our City. It must also be noted that the converted employees are mainly junior in the political offices, and the conversions included all employees appointed during the Mashaba administration.
“Directors and deputy directors in these offices were maintained on contract and not converted in line with the mayoral committee decision for their contracts to remain effective for six months after the election of a new political administration,” the ANC in Joburg said.
It said Phalatse was targeting junior employees and it accused her office of destroying their livelihoods.
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