Makana Municipality executive mayor, Zamuxolo Peters, has reassured municipal workers that they will be paid their salaries at the end of this month.
Makana Municipality executive mayor, Zamuxolo Peters, has reassured municipal workers that they will be paid their salaries at the end of this month.
He was responding to rumours that they may not be paid.
Municipal spokesperson, Yoliswa Ramokolo, told Grocott's Mail that Peter had promised that workers' salaries would be paid. The Mayor also said he would try to sort out problems with the payment of their medical aid subscriptions and other benefits, Ramokolo said.
Ramokolo said the mayor had considered the workers' grievances and would look into them. On Tuesday morning, Makana municipal workers flooded City Hall, picketing and demanding to know about the finances of the municipality.
The meeting comes after the Local Labour Forum (LLF) failed to begin because chairperson Pierre Ranchhod is alleged to have refused to answer critical questions.
South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) secretary, Lindelwa Faltein, told Grocott's Mail that workers wanted to know the financial status of the municipality and for the employer to address rumours that they might not get paid at the end of the month.
"We put these items in the agenda of the LLF and the chairperson said all those items are not going to be discussed," said Faltein.
Faltein said issues they wanted discussed include casual workers who have been there for more than three years; rumours that salaries might not be paid at the end of the month; as well as a suggestion that Makana should terminate Amatola Water contracts until the municipality's financial crisis is solved. Faltein said Ranchhod refused to discuss these items in the meeting last week.
She said Ranchhod had said it was not the workers' prerogative to make those suggestions. "That is why we called this meeting today with our members, to tell them why the LLF could not continue.
"The LLF is supposed to be a common ground for the employer and employee to discuss any issues that involves workers," Faltein said. She said there were other issues that they wanted to address with the employer concerning grievances from workers.
