Fire brigade might not come when you call them
There might be a delay in service when the community is in an emergency. WRDM employees are fed up with their salaries and benefits not being paid.
The West Rand fire brigade has allegedly withdrawn its trucks from the Randfontein and Krugersdorp area.
If there is an emergency, particularly a fire, one may assume that the local emergency services will not be available to attend.
The reason for this drastic step is that employee benefits have allegedly not been paid to the third parties.
West Rand District Municipality (WRDM) employees did not receive their salaries on time at the end of October, and after a strike by the employees, the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) released a statement on 2 November saying that salaries had finally been paid.
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The problem lies with benefit payments such as pension funds, medical aids and union subscriptions that have not been paid for the past three months, according to Samwu.
A source told the News that their benefits were deducted from their salaries but were never paid to the third parties. He said his bank called to remind him to pay the arrears on his home loan, even though the deductions were made from his salary.
Another source said husbands, wives and children who are members of the medical aid are no longer covered because the premiums have not been paid.
According to Samwu’s regional secretary, Siseko Siyothula, the situation can be attributed to the failure by the municipality to properly manage its funds, including the ill-conceived decision to invest over R77 million with VBS Mutual Bank.
The News recently spoke to Rethabiseng Mokebe, the Executive Manager of Corporate Services at the WRDM.
When asked about the benefits that have not been paid in the past few months, he said the municipality only experienced a delay in remittance of third parties on one occasion and has undertaken to carry the costs related to the delayed remittance.
He said that in the course of any salary run, the municipality was obligated by law or written instruction of such employee to deduct third party payments from an employee’s salary.
“The municipality concluded arrangements with all the third parties relating to the delayed remittance. According to such arrangement, the benefits of the members will not be suspended, nor will the delay affect their claims. It is therefore not factual that employees have ‘lost’ their medical aid,” added Mokebe.
“The Municipality has taken steps in terms of the law to secure a long-term solution to the matter. What remains is for the provisions of the law to be implemented by those responsible.”
According to him the money invested with VBS consisted of conditional grants that could not have been used for operational matters of the municipality. Even if the money had been invested in any other financial institution it could never have been used for the payment of salaries or third parties.
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