Incoming councils urged to prioritise recent salary, wage agreement implementation

Incoming councils in the various municipalities across the country should prioritise the immediate implementation of the recently signed salary and wage collective agreement, the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) said.

“The first priority for the councils that are to be constituted should be the immediate implementation of the recently signed salary and wage collective agreement in the South African local bargaining council,” said Samwu general secretary, Dumisane Magagula.

“Currently, there are several municipalities that have not communicated with workers on when they will be receiving their salary increases. We want these councils to immediately take a council resolution on the implementation of the workers’ salary increase.”

The union’s demand for incoming councils to prioritise the new salary and wage agreement comes after local government elections were held in the country last week.

Announcing the results of the elections, Independent Electoral Council (IEC) chairperson, Glen Mashinini, said the ANC had achieved a majority in 161 municipalities while the DA achieved a majority in 13 municipalities and the IFP a majority in 10 municipalities.

Mashinini said no majority was achieved in 66 municipalities.

These municipalities would be led by coalition governments.

Among these municipalities was the Tshwane metro.

In Tshwane, the ANC achieved 34,31% while the DA 32,34% and the EFF got 10,62% of the votes.

“These new councils should further ensure the stability of the country’s municipalities, according to the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs’ state of local governance barometer – 64 municipalities are dysfunctional while 111 are on the brink of dysfunctionality,” Magagula said.

“We, therefore, want these new councils to ensure that these municipalities are supported and turned around. More importantly, Cogta should play a leading role in ensuring that mechanisms are put in place to arrest the factors that have led to the collapse and near collapse of these municipalities.”

He explained that stable municipalities improved the lives of South Africans, adding that they were interested in seeing sound labour relations in municipalities.

“We are, therefore, sending a word of warning to the sixth municipal administration that irrespective of who governs, the municipality, Samwu will keep them on their toes in ensuring that collective bargaining is not reversed and that municipal workers are treated with the dignity and respect that they deserve,” Magagula said.

He urged municipalities to “hit the ground running” to ensure that residents continued to receive basic services.

“The time for picketing has come to an end, voters have spoken. Residents and voters alike want to see accountability and transparency in municipalities. They also want to see properly functioning municipalities which are responsive to their needs,” he said.

“We wish the sixth municipal administration well and trust that they will not fail residents and workers.”

Just weeks ago, in October, service delivery was hampered in the Tshwane metro when workers affiliated to the union went on strike over an ongoing tussle between it and the metro over a benchmarking agreement related to workers’ salaries.

The agreement sought to adjust the salaries of workers in line with the category 10 status the municipality acquired in 2017.

The drawn-out protest action the workers embarked on resulted in the Tshwane metro obtaining an interdict against the marching workers and the union.

In explaining why it obtained the interdict, the metro said it wanted to prevent Samwu affiliated workers from sabotaging service delivery through the ongoing protest action.

Former mayor Randall Williams said it was “disappointing” that while they had responded to matters the union raised, some members still took to the streets and disrupted the work of the municipality.