Local News

Ilala mayor refutes rumours about militia replacement

THE Ilala Municipal Mayor, Jerry Silaa.

THE Ilala Municipal Mayor, Jerry Silaa, has refuted rumours that the current militia will be replaced. Silaa’s comment comes after a group of militia complained to the media, during a demonstration last week, that the council had plans to replace the city’s private army.

“At the moment, we are in the process of reviewing the security structure for Ilala Municipality. It should be known that there are only 45 permanently employed militiamen and the rest work as casual labourers, which means they are on contract,” he said.

He added, “The council issues new contracts after every three months. However, there are those who are lucky to continue receiving these new contracts, but their contracts are not guaranteed.” Responding to the militia’s complaints regarding pensions, the Mayor said that under the current contracts they were not entitled to it.

Speaking to the ‘Sunday News’ recently, one of the militiamen Dennis Mkuvalwa, complained that Ilala municipal authorities have been mistreating them: offering three-month contracts, no vacation and low wages of 4 000/- per day.

“Most of us have been working for more than 10 years but we get three-month contracts. We don’t get monthly pension contributions and there is no overtime allowance,” he complained.

Another city militia, Adam Mwandali, said they had been promised permanent contracts. However, the promise had not been fulfilled. “I spoke to the Ilala Municipal Lawyer and he assured me that by the end of this month we will get our permanent contracts.

We are more than 300 and we have families depending on us,” he said. Mwandali added that they started complaining long back but their demands have not been met. He said they have taken their case to the Ministry of Labour and were still waiting for a response.