Millions of rands in ratepayers' money has gone down the drain as the eThekwini Municipality battles to control the rampant abuse of sick leave by council employees.
City manager Mike Sutcliffe said the municipality had lost R39,3-million and 131 450,5 working days last year because of employees staying off work for various reasons.
The absenteeism rate has been a major cause of concern for political parties represented at Exco and they have demanded that the trend be reversed.
Sutcliffe has vowed to bring the high rate of absenteeism in the council under strict control.
He said on Wednesday that HIV and Aids and other factors had contributed to the high rate of sick leave. He also acknowledged that the system was open to abuse by lazy employees who were costing the council a lot of money.
The rate of absenteeism due to sick leave, including HIV and Aids, in the council is 4,69 percent, just above the national norm of 4 percent.
Sutcliffe said the situation was "not alarming" compared with other municipalities, but added that urgent measures had to be taken to bring matters under control.
Sutcliffe said: "Out of a total of 11 331 employees, excluding former operational entities, it was established that there were 131 450,5 days of sick leave in the municipality in the past year.
"Sick leave costs the municipality R39,3-million annually because we need to employ extra people or ask other employees to do the job of two people if we want the work to continue," said Sutcliffe.
Sutcliffe emphasised the need to manage the rate of sick leave.
"Obviously this should be managed as it impacts on the running of the whole organisation. We want to ensure that we eliminate any abuse of sick leave when it occurs, so that only sick people will have the right to stay away from work," he said.
DA councillor and Exco member Lyn Ploos van Amstel said the consolidation of these statistics provided a valuable tool for identifying problem areas where successful intervention could lead to huge cost savings for the council.
Gladwin Ndlela, IFP caucus leader and Exco member, said employees should be encouraged to disclose their HIV status since that could be a major cause of absenteeism.
Ndlela also challenged Sutcliffe to ensure that working conditions were conducive to employees' happiness. "Sometimes when working conditions are poor people play truant. We need to cast the net wide and establish the causes," said Ndlela.