Tshwane's FF Plus councillor, Roché Grebe, is demanding swift and decisive action on suspected sick leave abuse in the municipality
Image: Oupa Mokoena/Independent Newspapers
Freedom Front Plus in the City of Tshwane has called for a thorough investigation into sick-leave patterns, particularly on Mondays and Fridays following a council report showing that municipal workers accumulated a total of 142,490 sick leave days in the previous financial year.
A council report compiled by the Human Capital Management Group highlighted that in just the first quarter of the 20242025 financial year, Tshwane's 18,266 permanent employees took 43,033 sick leave days, contributing to a staggering total of 142,490 days for the entire 2024/25 financial year.
This trend has seriously concerned certain councillors about the potential impact on the city's ability to deliver services effectively.
Roché Grebe, FF Plus councillor called for immediate and decisive action, saying that a municipality cannot function effectively with such low discipline and capacity. This, he said, hampers service delivery, exacerbates issues like power outages and water leaks, and allows infrastructure to deteriorate.
He said the city must thoroughly investigate sick-leave patterns, specifically focusing on the trend of repeatedly logging sick leave on Mondays and Fridays.
“Secondly, medical certificates should be strictly verified and disciplinary steps have to be taken against employees who exploit the system. Thirdly, employees who are not equal to their task should be identified, followed by remedial action or dismissal if necessary. Lastly, wellness programmes should be introduced to address legitimate health issues, with no tolerance for exploiters,” he said.
Grebe noted that a whopping 43,033 days of sick leave between April and June 2025 equate to 118 calendar years of full-time work lost in just three months.
He said that the 142,490 sick leave days taken in the 2024/25 financial year amount to approximately 390 calendar years of lost productivity.
“Under normal circumstances, the Tshwane labour force should deliver 4,7 million active workdays per year. Instead, the metro lost more than 30,000 workweeks in just one year. This is not a minor problem; it marks the collapse of productivity. The metro simply cannot aim for excellence while its employees are absent at this rate,” he said.
Kholofelo Morodi, MMC for Corporates and Shared Services, encouraged the councillor to report any instances of suspected sick leave abuse, urging him to inform the municipality if he is aware of cases where people are claiming to be sick when they are not.
She said she is currently unaware of any suspected fraudulent sick leave, “but I can look into it and come back”.
“If there is a high rate and the councillor is aware we can do an investigation,” Morodi said.
She conceded that high absenteeism due to sick leave impacts service delivery.
“But I think that if people are going on sick leave we do make contingency plans so that it does not affect overall the services of the city,” she said.
She explained that the law permits people to take sick leave for a certain number of days.
“If it is wrongdoing or we suspect that maybe they have taken fraudulent sick leave we will have to investigate it, but normally we make plans so that it does not affect service delivery,” she said.
Morodi said the city has over 22,000 employees, including contractors, who are entitled to 30 days of sick leave annually.
“You must also look at whether those days were taken during the flu season or not because we also want people to come to the office when they are sick, as they risk everyone’s health. If the city was a small organisation it would make sense to have that type of concern,” she said.
rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za