uShaka Marine World, the globally-acclaimed aquarium theme park owned by the eThekwini Municipality is accused of paying workers peanuts, while its executives smile all the way to the bank.
The theme park is alleged to have ignored a 2016 recommendation by Deloitte to re-look at its pay structure so that the pay gap between employees is closed.
It was also alleged that the entity was planning to appoint another company at a huge cost to do another salary benchmarking and overlook the current recommendations.
This is contained in a letter the park staff wrote to eThekwini City Manager, Musa Mbhele, in March this year asking him to intervene and resolve the impasse.
The depressed workers first wrote to the City Integrity and Investigation Unit (CIIU) to investigate the matter, but they were turned back on the basis that this is purely a labour issue.
They then wrote a long email to Mbhele highlighting their plight. They asked that he intervenes as the management was dragging its feet in implementing the Deloitte recommendations.
“As per your previous communication you have stated that you have engaged with uShaka CEO and this matter was going to be tackled within the entity.
NEWS: A complaint sent to eThekwini City Manager Musa Mbhele by a whistle-blower from Ushaka alleges that the management of the entity partially implemented recommendations by Deloitte to restructure and fix its pay gap. As a result, only executives got salary increments. @IOL pic.twitter.com/ctizD65bjo
“However till to date this serious matter has not being (sic) dealt with because the matter situation is still the same also there hasn't been any talks with the trade union on this matter from entity management.
“Also we have reported the maladministration which involved tax payers monies and its evident you're taking a blind eye on this entire matter reported you as the Accounting Officer of the City,” reads an email that was addressed to Mbhele.
In the same email, the workers bemoaned that uShaka was going to get a bailout of R120 million from the municipality and that that money was going to be abused.
“Recently from the media we saw there is going to be another funding of R120 million of hard-earned tax payers monies this year which will also be misused by uShaka Executives and Board of Directors,” the workers alleged in the email.
In the emails exchanged between Mbhele and the staff, it emerged some lowly paid employees were taking home around R3,500 and the park was falling apart, with basic maintenance not being carried out.
“To prove we are managed by an incompetent board, executive and management, any of you try and book or buy a ticket to swim you won't be able to because the pools are dirty water is mouldy green yet uShaka has high paid execs and management and that's just a glimpse proving poor management we have.
“Sometimes there is no Coke or ice cream in the park and no one is held accountable,” the staff told Mbhele.
eThekwini’s head of communications, Lindiwe Khuzwayo denied that Mbhele has ignored the matter when it was raised by workers.
“City Manager had referred the matter to the entity to deal with and the CEO assured him that it is dealt with internally.
“It is therefore incorrect to allege that CM is dragging his feet,” Khuzwayo said.
She added that all their entities are independent organisations with their decision-making processes.
“It should be noted that entities are independent organisations with internal rules and processes. Although owned by the municipality as the parent organisation, the municipality cannot impose its own rules and regulations outside of the general rules and regulations governing entities,” Khuzwayo said.
sihle.mavuso@inl.co.za
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