WRDM Update – financial mismanagement leaves employees discouraged
Employees from the all over the West Rand district have not received their full salaries, and their medical aid and pension fund contributions, and other benefits, have also not been paid to the service providers.
Employees from the West Rand District Municipality (WRDM) travelled to the Gauteng Premier’s office to hand over a memorandum of their grievances to the Premier, David Makhura, after talks about settling third party payments failed.
According to Amanda de Lange, councillor of the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) in Mogale City, employees from all over the West Rand district have not received their full salaries for the past few months. Their medical aids, pension funds and other benefits have also not been paid to the service providers.
Read the initial article here:
https://www.citizen.co.za/krugersdorp-news/368857/fire-brigade-might-not-come-when-you-call-them/
She said that currently there are no emergency services on the West Rand because these services are provided by the WRDM and not the local municipality. It is alleged that Makhura has been avoiding the unhappy workers. The problem with the third party payments has been ongoing for the past few months and has allegedly been ignored.
The cause of the financial trouble seems to be years of mismanagement and ill-considered investments made with the now liquidated VBS Bank. The WRDM had invested more than R70 million with the bank.
De Lange said that the FF+ has been warning officials for years that a crisis like this could exist. She said it is amazing that there were people that were aware of the crisis and still nothing was done to prevent it.
According to her, the WRDM’s financial portfolio committee and the chairperson have a direct share in this problem.
She said that officials and politicians should be held accountable for the situation that they now find themselves in.
In the meantime, hundreds of WRDM employees are paying the price for the municipality’s mismanagement.
According to a source it is not only the employees who are suffering, service providers all round have not been paid in months and even if they have not downed tools it would be next to impossible for them to do their jobs as they do not have the necessary resources at their disposal.
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