Security guards at the North West’s Kgetleng Rivier municipality, near Rustenburg, have closed the institution’s gates, demanding that they be paid outstanding wages.
Services have stopped, leaving residents without water and other basic services.
The security officers working for an appointed contractor, CSI, claim the municipality owes them four months’ pay.
On the other side, the municipality’s mayor, Thabo Jacobs, allegedly informed them that the municipality did not have a budget for them.
Kgetleng Rivier caters to Swartruggens and Koster with a population of 54 759 residents, according to the 2023 auditor-general’s report.
Empty promises
“The municipality takes us for granted. They pay everyone but the security guards. When they go home, we are left here to protect their facility.
“They forget that security guards are breadwinners, fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters,” said Thabo Matloolwane, the group’s representative.
He said in December, the municipality paid them two months of the four-month unpaid balance and promised to clear the balance by December 26.
“They paid us R2 500, although we were supposed to be paid R5 800; that’s our salary excluding weekends and overtime. They paid us R1 300 in January, and that was it,” he explained.
Matloolwane said the municipality then promised that by the first week of March, they would have been paid.
“Now we hear that there is no money at all. We will close the municipal offices until we get payment.”
Threatened by loan shark
Another security officer, who preferred to remain anonymous, said she had to borrow money in January to get her child to school.
“At the time, I had nothing, but because there was a promise that we would be paid, I went to a loan shark; now the loan shark is on my back, and I do not have his money. My life is currently in danger.
“It is unfair because I worked for that money. This institution is guarded 24 hours a day. The least they could do is pay us,” she explained.
The municipality’s chief whip, Kagiso Selaolane, said they will work to find a solution to the security guards’ demands.
“We are still at the municipality. We expect the mayor to arrive. It is only then that we will be able to provide complete details and a thorough response about the way forward,” he said.
