The City of lol Ekurhuleni may have to backtrack on its decision to place City Manager Emogen Mashazi on special leave.
This as the veteran dugg in her heels insisting on working until her actual 65th birthday and being paid for the remainder of her five year contract (ends in 2027)
Just as the city announced it’s council decision placing her on leave, Mashazi promptly rejected it and vowed to keep serving in the position until there’s a mutual settlement.
She spoke to Newsnote on Friday and questioned what she believed to be a rush to see her leave the institution.
“I’m the accounting officer for the city of Ekolelemi and I’m stillthe accounting officer for the city of Ekolelemi, I’m not on special leave,” said Mashazi.
She said her rejection of the special leave did not mean refusal to retire but an objection to being forced out. She added that she believes she’s done her part and didn’t want her 36 years record in the city soiled.
“I am not interested in waiting up to 2027. I am tired. I am 65. I have grandchildren to look after. And there’s no one who can work in this toxicenvironment for over 10 years like I did and work diligently,” said the City Manager.
Mayor Doctor Xhakaza said unless rescinded council decision placing the City Manager on special leave stands and her insistence on reporting for duty was an undesirable escalation.
“She has not been at work since early March. But she came this Monday, after the council decision.So I don’t want to enter into these things, because we also don’t want to… We are anticipating legalities, so you must also be careful how you deal with it at this stage. But any decision that she makes now that she’s here is irregular I mean, there’s council decision. Council decision is a supreme decision.You must either get council to rescind it, or you go to a legal route to get it reviewed by the courts of law, and all that.we don’t want to be put into a compromise situation where we must now close, or evict…because people are going to say it’s a continuation of a… and so forth, as if we are desperately trying to remove her,” he said when Newsnote asked about the City Manager’s rejection of the special leave,said Xhakaza.
Mashazi acknowledged there’s been attempts to get her exempted from the country’s retirement laws and argued that failure to secure such was not her problem.
“My ID was there on the certificate, on the CV, application for all to see.All Councillors were aware that I’ll be reaching 65. So Mayor Campbell then applied for a waiver for me to work over the age of 65 because I was still young.
“The MEC confirmed and he was comfortable with our motivation, the motivation from the Executive Mayor, that yes they can go ahead and seek approval from the Minister to get a waiver in 2022. I was 62 years old.Then to date, no one followed. It is not my responsibility to follow the Minister to give us a waiver,” said Mashazi.
She said she was in conversation with the mayor to get him to lobby the decision to place her on special leave indicating she’s reluctant to engage in a legal battle with her employer.