The halls at Town Hall were filled with dancing and singing on Thursday, 21 November. However, the angry, fed-up members of the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) were not dancing and singing for joy.
More than 200 members of the trade union demanded to speak to the Mogale City Local Municipality (MCLM) Executive Mayor, councillor Naga Patrick Lipudi, but were informed that he was not available. They insisted to see the person standing in for the Mayor.
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“We can’t be a mayorless municipality,” Justice Mkoma, the chairperson of the SAMWU Mogale City branch said to the crowd.
Mkoma said the reason for the protest was a dispute with the MCLM management. They claimed that the municipality has recently increased all assistant managers’ positions by two levels. This also meant a pay increase for those in a managerial position.
Mkoma added that this created a massive pay gap as the other employees did not get a pay increase like their managers did.
The trade union members were demanding to meet at the bargaining council to discuss the matter. A date of 16 January was suggested to them, but SAMWU said they wanted to meet as soon as possible.
“The structure is not working. If you increase for one, you must increase for all,” he explained.
He further claimed that MCLM was delaying their talks on purpose, using excuses like being sick and unavailable.
“We want the accounting officer to come and talk to us, and explain what is going on. Without the employees there will be no service delivery.”
While addressing the crowd, Mkoma said they had consulted with an advocate and that they believe what they were doing was not in vain, but showed who SAMWU was.
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He said that everyone had the right to their own opinion and if the MCLM thought they were in the wrong, they were welcome to challenge their opinion.
The News requested comment from the MCLM, and their response was that the matter had been referred to the South African Local Government Bargaining Council. This meant that the matter was sub judice and could not be discussed with the media.
“However, the Bargaining Council postponed the matter, at the behest of the Commissioner/ Arbitrator, to 16 January 2020,” Ratha Ramatlhape, Executive Manager of Corporate Support Services said.
