By Asemahle Vumsindo
Makhanda residents are facing long waiting to periods to fix disruptions to essential services, more especially water and electricity outages, as Makana Municipality workers engage in what has been described as a “go-slow” protest. The workers are refusing to work overtime hours due to a breakdown in trust, following a history of delayed payments for previously worked overtime.
Defining overtime
In a typical workplace, overtime is defined as the time an employee works beyond their normal contracted hours. In the context of the municipality’s essential services, this typically includes after-hours (before 8am and after 4.30pm), weekends, and public holidays were the work required is for urgent repairs and maintenance.
The root of the refusal
The primary cause of the refusal to work overtime stems from a history of delayed payments. According to Democratic Alliance (DA) Councillor Luvuyo Sizani, workers were refusing overtime due to “past experiences of non-payment” of worked hours. Sizani said that affected departments typically include water, electricity, sanitation, and parks.
Sizani indicated that, to his understanding, all arrear overtime has been paid following consultations with the Human Resources (HR) department. Fellow DA Councillor Geoff Embling maintains that the dispute is an ongoing issue, clarifying that municipal workers are still refusing to work overtime based on their negative past experiences.
Embling highlighted the severity of the situation, referencing a strike last September where workers did not pump water in the mornings. He said that the electricity department appears to be the worst affected, with outages lingering over weekends and after hours because staff continue to refuse to fix faults during overtime periods.
Notes from the Infrastructure Portfolio Meeting held on Wednesday, 7 May 2025, which were provided by Embling, shed further light on the situation. The notes confirm that the overtime payments owed to workers from as far back as September 2024 were finally released in March 2025, with the finance department said to be the source of the delays.
The meeting notes also raised concerns about senior management’s failure to discipline staff. A transition in mid-2024 from a system allowing “excessive overtime” to a “malfunctioning shift system” has complicated matters. Alarmingly, fixing critical electrical faults after hours and on weekends is currently not classified as “essential” work by senior management, according to the notes.
This lack of planning and management failure has a direct negative impact on service delivery in Makhanda, delaying urgent repairs and exacerbating the existing infrastructure challenges and cable theft crisis.
The Makana Municipality was approached for official comment on the current status of the overtime dispute and service disruptions and has not responded.
