Pretoria – Cash-strapped City of Tshwane will disburse millions of rand to its estimated 25 000 employees this festive season as part of the payouts linked to a benchmarking agreement.
The Pretoria News was told the decision to settle the benchmarking payments was made last week and would be communicated to the unions and workers during the course of this week.
The decision came on the back of concerns by mayor Randall Williams that the City had dipped into a R4.4 billion deficit while under the control of the previous administrators.
When he took office in November, Williams lambasted the administrators for blowing a R284m surplus left by the DA-led administration before council was dissolved in March.
He bemoaned the fact the metro was in financial distress with a significant deficit of R4.4bn.
Speaking to the Pretoria News, Williams defended the decision to pay out the benchmarking monies expected to be the last package to workers.
The payouts would be in line with the decision to elevate municipality from Category 9 status to 10 by the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs in 2017.
While the metro received a new ranking at the time, the salaries of workers were not adjusted accordingly.
Williams said: “It is not a question about affordability. There were agreements that were entered into by the administrators and the then mayor Stevens Mokgalapa. For me it is very important that we honour legal undertakings and that we honour agreements.”
He said the date for the agreement to be honoured would be December 26.
“There is an agreement in place. The issue is not about them worrying about payments; the issue is about them thinking about their commitment because it is not a one-way street.
“It is also about what I am delivering as far as the service is concerned to the residents. It is a two-way street. Yes, you are entitled to earn a salary, but on the other hand the residents are entitled to receive good delivery of basic services,” Williams said.
Chief of staff Griffith Jordan said: “We have had a robust engagement with the human resource and finance departments. We concluded the position on Friday and that position will be formally communicated to employees by latest on Monday (today) and I think it is the position unions would find favourable.”
He said the position was to ensure the City honoured the bargaining agreements.
“It is important that the City moves on; it is now category 10 city and it is important that it moves its employees on to the relevant scales. It must make sure that this is done in an appropriate fashion and this final benchmarking will conclude that process. The intention is to conclude the matter by the end of the year,” he said.
SA Municipal Workers Union regional secretary Mpho Tladinyane said Samwu was still waiting for a response from Williams after a meeting about benchmarking payments between the two parties on November 9.
“The executive mayor made a commitment to respond to our issue. On December 8, we reminded the mayor and we are awaiting his response,” he said.
In July, the union embarked on a protest after then head administrator Mpho Nawa expressed concerns that the City could not afford the payouts given the impact of Covid-19 on its finances. The impasse was, however, resolved after local government MEC Lebogang Maile intervened and workers were eventually paid.
Last year, in December, the City paid R500 million in payouts, but it was not clear how much it was going to spend on workers this year.
Pretoria News