Pretoria - The DA federal council has undertaken to investigate the deal between the City of Tshwane and labour unions to pay workers an ex gratia once-off payout.
Federal chairperson James Selfe expressed unhappiness about the rationale behind the agreement that would see the City paying R380million to the workers, who would be paid between R7 000 and R15 000, depending on their level.
On Monday Selfe flew from Cape Town to Gauteng, where he was scheduled to meet with Tshwane Mayor Stevens Mokgalapa to discuss the matter.
He told the Pretoria News he had not directly spoken to the mayor since the deal was announced.
“I have not been talking directly to the mayor. I just want to understand for the sake of ourselves and the leadership of the party what actually transpired and what the implications of the deal will be,” he said.
He expressed concerns about the deal, saying he was worried about its legal standing.
He had reportedly blamed officials who apparently made the decision.
This was despite the fact the party’s regional leader Abel Tau was at the forefront of last week’s negotiations between the municipality and the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) and Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union.
Asked why he could not point fingers at politicians, he said: “There were a series of decisions taken over the time. Again, I don’t want to commit myself until I have spoken to Mr Mokgalapa.”
Samwu regional secretary Mpho Tladinyane said they were not worried about the DA’s stance on the matter. “We are not worried. We have done things properly and according to the law. What we all want is money,” he said.
However, he said Selfe’s public utterances might have to do with the perceived failure by the DA to govern in the City. “We suspect that it may not necessarily be about the agreement. It may be about governance issues because seemingly they are not able to govern,” he said.
The Pretoria News reported on Monday that Finance MMC Mare-Lise Fourie said the once-off payments would not affect service delivery despite the fact they had not been budgeted for.
The deal was reached following last week’s unlawful strike by workers who demanded an 18% salary increase, saying that the same rate had been given to senior managers. Part of the agreement that led to the end of the strike was that the 18% granted to the 64 top managers would be terminated.
The parties also agreed that within the next two months a dedicated task team would conduct a benchmarking exercise on the pay scale of other metro municipalities in order to develop a pay scale for the City employees.