The South African Municipality Workers Union (Samwu) has threatened to take legal action against cash-strapped Amahlathi local municipality if it fails to pay the salaries of its members.
Sunday World has seen a letter written by law firm Cromwell and Associates Incorporated on behalf of Samwu seeking an undertaking from the municipality that there will not be a repeat of what happened last month, when the municipality failed to pay salaries of workers and councillors.
The municipality was given until the end of business today to respond.
Eastern Cape chairperson of Samwu Zolani Ndlela said the union has instructed its lawyers to take action and prevent its members from being thrown into further financial turmoil.
Last week, Amahlathi municipality informed employees and councillors that it had made arrangements with Pick n Pay in Stutterheim for them to buy food on credit, saying the bills would be deducted from their salaries when money was available.
Ndlela shared that the union was aware of the deal, but said the non-payment of salaries did not only affect workers from being able to buy food, it also affected their members in paying for their bonds, school fees, insurance policies and other necessities.
He said: “We also don’t know the details of this deal between the municipality and Pick n Pay because workers were not consulted. It was not discussed in the local labour forum. This deal reduces our members into slaves who can do all the work just for a meal.”
The Pick n Pay deal has also been criticised by the DA and EFF councillors at the municipality.
EFF Amahlathi councillor Neliswa Mbulawa said the groceries’ credit deal is not only undermining the councillors, but it is a disgrace of the highest form since the dawn of democracy.
Mbulawa said: “The council always speaks of salaries as meaning groceries. It is clear that they have no idea that the salaries we get are mostly meant for us to access constituencies.
“The question is what about the service delivery that councillors should engineer through doing oversight visits, how do we do that without salaries? Without the tools of trade and without leadership?”
She said the situation at Amahlathi showed that the ANC has failed dismally to govern the municipality.
Despite numerous reports of corruption in the previous administrations, the municipality has blamed its financial misfortunes on the standardisation of salaries, which saw its middle managers getting a monthly travel allowance of R30 000 on top of their incomes.
The DA caucus leader at Amahlathi, Richard Pickering, said his party has been warning the council since 2017 that allowing the implementation of standardisation would affect the financial stability of the municipality.
“Sadly the ANC councillors were unable to come to a decision to rescind this financial madness which has now led to the present situation of being unable to pay salaries and wages,” said Pickering.
“The ANC must take full responsibility for the situation that all employees find themselves in, unable to meet their commitments and unable to support their families.”
He said the DA will support the court action to cancel the wage standardisation and the excessive allowances paid to the managers.
Amahlathi municipal manager Ivy Sikhulu-Nqwena has since informed the council about Samwu’s legal threats. She said the council needed to act swiftly and reverse the standardisation.
