Kimberley - The South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) in the Northern Cape says that hundreds of workers at Thembelihle Local Municipality (Hopetown) have not been paid their January salaries.
The union says the municipal manager and chief financial officer resigned late last year and as a result the municipality had no officials to sign off salary payments.
The municipality is run by a coalition of the EFF, DA, Community Forum and FF+ which came to power in November 2021.
The municipality covers the towns of Orania and Strydenburg in the semi-arid parts of the Northern Cape.
In a statement on Thursday, the municipality union said the municipality had not been operating, accordingly, and this had been the case for some time.
NEWS: SAMWU in the Northern Cape alleges that hundreds of workers at Thembelihle local municipality (Hopetown) have not been paid their January salaries. The union claims that the MM and CFO resigned and as a result, the municipality has no officials to sign off salary payments.
— Sihle Mavuso (@ZANewsFlash) February 2, 2023
The Samwu statement said: “The municipality which covers areas such as Hopetown, Orania and Strydenburg has for the last four months been on autopilot, without executive leadership which has resulted in limited service delivery and more worryingly, the non-payment of workers’ salaries for the month of January.
“In December 2022, the municipal manager, who is the accounting officer of the municipality, tendered his resignation.
“This was recently followed by the suspension of the municipality’s CFO and other senior managers.
“As a result, the municipality does not have any person with the authority to sign off payments that are supposed to be made for operations.”
Workers at the municipality had as a result not received their January 2023 salaries, while third parties such as medical aid and pension fund payments had been in arrears for over a year.
Samwu said it was of the view that the administrative instability at the municipality could be delinked from the political instability within the council, with council speaker being embroiled in legal battles to be declared a legitimate speaker by the courts.
“As a result of the political infighting and instability, council cannot sit to appoint an acting municipal manager or CFO who would ensure that both workers and service providers are paid for work done.
“This instability has not only prejudiced workers but also compromised service delivery for residents of the municipality.”
Samwu called for the municipality to be placed under administration.
“As Samwu, we therefore call for urgent intervention by the provincial government through Section 139 of the Constitution.
“The current councillors have proven to be hopelessly unable to fulfil their duties and as such, an administrator should be appointed to oversee the general administration of the municipality.
“If needs be, the municipality should be dissolved, and fresh elections held to elect people who have the interests of workers and residents at heart.”
The mayor, Leonard Makena, told IOL he would respond to enquiries but had not done so by the timet his report was compiled.
His response will be added once it has been received.
Current Affairs