PRAKTISEER – More complaints have been lodged against Cll Beefy Sekgobela this week.
On Tuesday Cllr Aubrey Ngwatle of Pan Africanist Congress of Azania (PAC) and Cllr Lethabile Kgwedi of the Democratic Alliance (DA) met with 21 employees of a company contracted by the Sekhukhune District Municipality to build a reservoir and a pipeline to provide water to the area.
According to an employee several problems had surfaced since the work commenced last year February. “At first our salaries were wrong. We received R120 per day in stead of R184,50 per day. When we queried the mistake at the end of last year we only received three months’ back pay. We didn’t receive any payment this month.”
Payments were allegedly also not made on the same day monthly. The workers also complained about their personal protection equipment and said their overalls were torn and the dust masks outworn. “None of us are registered for unemployment funds either,” added another worker.
Cllr Ngwatle and Cllr Kgwedi said the situation was unacceptable and requested that the parties involved be replaced. “The community liaison officer, the steering committee and the councillors responsible for wards 13 and 30 are not doing their jobs properly. They have forgotten about the interests of the people. Cllr Rosemary Maroga overseeing ward 13 and Cllr Beefy Sekgobela who overseeing ward 30 need to be replaced.”
Steelburger/Lydenburg News contacted Mr Isaac Mankge, a director of company for an explanation. “The payment was delayed because of a problem at the municipality. I explained to the workers they would get paid this week. It is also not true that the workers are not registered for UIF.”
Mankge said he was upset that the employees had spoken to the newspaper. “I told them that we have the situation under control. These opposition parties only want to be in the news because it is election time. This has politics written all over it.”
