ETTER OF COMPLAINT AGAINST THE TRAINING PROVIDER KNOWN AS EKURHULENI ARTISANS AND SKILLS TRAINING CENTER FOR RESKILLING OF DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE EMPLOYEES

LETTER OF COMPLAINT AGAINST THE TRAINING PROVIDER KNOWN AS EKURHULENI ARTISANS AND SKILLS TRAINING CENTER FOR RESKILLING OF DEPARTMENT OF DEFENCE EMPLOYEES 1. I am an employee of the Department of Defence (DOD), and am writing this Complaint Letter as a result of the “Service” I received whilst trying to get paperwork in place, in order for me to complete a Reskilling course through EKURHULENI ARTISANS AND SKILLS TRAINING CENTER (EASTC). I have completed 42 years of Service for the DOD and on exiting the Defence Force; you are entitled to do a reskilling course of your choice. 2. As mentioned in paragraph one (1) above, I am till today still trying to complete the paper “War” to get the correct paperwork/documents from EASTC to complete a reskilling course namely Carpentry and Joinery Course. In the DOD, you are given a booklet with Suppliers for reskilling that are registered on the E- Procure System (National Treasury Data Base) for reskilling and the course being of your own choice. (Must be a registered company in the book provided) I Chose Carpentry and Joinery. 3. I am now going to try explaining the “Run Around” I have received with respect to trying to get the correct paperwork from EASTC to submit to our offices at the DOD, so that I can complete the Carpentry and Joinery Course for my reskilling. There are a number of roll players throughout this experience that I have had contact with, namely: a. Bonita from EASTC. (Sorry did not get the Surname) b. Ms Joyce Mogwale from EASTC. c. Tandi from EASTC. (Sorry did not get the Surname) d. Palesa from EASTC. (Sorry did not get the Surname) e. DOD Human Resource Department for reskilling. 4. I contacted EKURHULENI ARTISANS AND SKILLS TRAINING CENTER (EASTC) on 7 July 2023 to get the process for my reskilling to take place and thinking nothing of what I am going to explain here under: a. 7 July 2023 spoke to Bonita and explained my circumstances with respect to being from the DOD and wanting to do a reskilling course with their institution. b. Bonita emailed me a booklet and enrollment forms to complete in order to do the course that I was interested in. On reading the booklet, I decided that I would do the Carpentry and Joinery course that they provide at their training institution. c. I contacted EKURHULENI ARTISANS AND SKILLS TRAINING CENTER (EASTC) on 11 July 2023 after deciding on the course I wanted to do, to get a quotation that has to be submitted to my Human Resource Department for reskilling for approval. d. I spoke to Ms Joyce Mogwale from EASTC on 17 July 2023 explaining to her that I will email her the DOD forms that have to be completed and a quotation attached so that my request can be approved and the company paid before any enrollment forms are completed and dates decided upon for the time of the actual course to take place. e. On 20 July 2023 I received a quotation for Carpentry and Roofing for R 9000.00? The request that I had submitted to Ms Joyce Mogwale was for Carpentry and Joinery. I then contacted Ms Joyce Mogwale and explained that the paperwork, namely the Quote was incorrect and the Forms that I had submitted to her were not fully completed or signed. Ms Joyce Mogwale then corrected the mistakes and re-sent the documents back to me via email. f. I then with other documents that have to accompany the quotation and document from EASTC submitted them to my Human Resource Department for reskilling for approval and payment thereof. g. The Financial Approval documents were submitted to the reskilling committee on 4 August 2023 and later approved on 8 August 2023. My Human Resource Department for reskilling emailed me a copy of the approval letter and informed me that they are now in contact with EASTC with respect to having a pre-payment agreement completed and an Invoice made out for the amount, namely R 12 000.00 so that the DOD can pay the amount before the commencement of the course taking place. h. After waiting nearly a month, I started my own follow up’s as to what is the hold up and that I am not hearing anything from my Human Resource Department for reskilling. I contacted the reskilling office only to find out that they were still awaiting the signed pre-payment agreement and the invoice from EASTC.

i. This is where I received the name of “Tandi” from my Human Resource Department for reskilling and her contact number as the pre-payment documents had been forwarded to her for completion so that payment can take place. After many phone calls on numerous dates, I found out still not having spoken to Tandi that she is the only person for the Company that works with this type of documents, namely Quotations, Invoices and Pre-Payment Agreements. j. On one occasion I got through to EASTC and spoke to Palesa who confirmed that Tandi is the only person allowed to work with the aforementioned documents. I explained to Palesa that in this whole situation I am actually only the middle man and the client that wants to receive the training. Palesa asked me to contact my reskilling department and asked them to forward the prepayment agreement documents to her and she would see to it that Tandi receive the documents, complete them and return them to my Human Resource Department for reskilling. k. This had now been going on nearly every two to three days I was contacting my Human Resource Department for reskilling to see if the prepayment agreement and invoice had been received only to find out that it hadn’t and on numerous occasions my Human Resource Department for reskilling had re forwarded the prepayment agreement and request for the invoice but still had not received anything back from EASTC. l. On hearing this I contacted EASTC again and this time I did get hold of Tandi only to hear from her that she is “overwhelmed” with work but will sort the matter out. Another week goes by only to hear that Tandi was on sick leave for a week. This she explained to me as I managed to get hold of her again. I informed her that every time I speak to EASTC, I also report back to my reskilling department at the DOD to let them know what the situation is. I explained to her that when she was on sick leave the documents from the DOD were again forwarded emailed to her and that she should find them in her in box of her emails received. She then started with I have not checked my emails yet. I am sure I will find it and complete it and send it back WHEN I GO THROUGH MY EMAILS. I left it at that.

m. On 3 October 2023 I contacted EASTC to see if there was any progress only to find out the Tandi was on lunch. This was at 13h15. I then contacted EASTC at 15h15 to get hold of Tandi only to find out that she is in a meeting since she came back from lunch at 14h00. The person that had answered my call just happened to be Palesa. I confronted Palesa and explained to her that I am still sitting in the same boat waiting for the prepayment agreement and invoice to be submitted to my Human Resource Department for reskilling. I asked her if she had given the message to Tandi previously when we chatted and she recommended that the documents be sent to her to give to Tandi. She admitted that she had and she even asked Tandi if she could complete the documents that Tandi sign them seeing that she is the only person in the whole company allowed to do this and the she was told that she is not allowed to. Palesa asked me if I could not get the documents and drive through and have them signed by confronting Tandi to do so. I explained to Palesa again that I am the middle man and not supposed to be interfering in the process. I asked her should I do this, what guarantee do I have that Tandi will be there or she would assist me? On numerous occasions I also asked to speak to Tandi’s supervisor, but of course there was always “He is busy in a meeting, He is not at present here”. I informed Palesa that maybe I should write a letter to my Human Resource Department for reskilling and explain to them the situation and recommend that they be removed from the E Procure Data Base as they “do not practice what they preach”. Palesa was very apologetic and asked me not to. By this time I was fed up with the whole situation and said to Palesa that I think that I should just cancel the whole thing, send the letter to my Human Resource Department for reskilling and a copy to you at Hello Peter .com. Palesa said that I had made her so emotional that she started crying. I then asked her to just pass the message to Tandi that she must contact me. I am still awaiting Tandi’s call. n. My Wife when I finished on conversation with Palesa said I should write this letter to you and maybe just maybe they may catch a wake up. 5. I hope you publish this letter because there are so many people that do not have jobs in this country, but the ones that do, I not really interested in doing them 6. From a very frustrated client.