Samwu Secretary, Gary Baloyi, says the Steve Tshwete Local Municipality (STLM) has become ‘completely ungovernable’. His opinion follows an altercation between municipal employees and the executive, during which Acting Municipal Manager, Thokozile Zulu, ‘was doused with water by employees during a meeting at the civic centre’ yesterday.

Municipal employees again blocked roads around the municipality to address issues pertaining to the appeals process regarding the recent salary and job grading adjustments. The municipality has seen three crippling strikes since September last year, the first of which lasted two months.

According to Baloyi, a consensus among municipal employees about upward salary adjustments, remain in place.

“Workers are demanding better wages and we agree with them,” he told the Middelburg Observer.

He says that ‘rogue agents within the municipality’ had however hijacked consultations, spreading false information under workers, resulting in regular breakdowns in service delivery.

“It’s clear that some employees are fed information contrary to the council resolutions taken about the wage dispute,” Baloyi says.

He says due to the misinformation, a group of employees are constantly making new demands, counter to the resolutions agreed to.

Meanwhile, the municipality has also announced that the newly established five-member dispute resolution panel, cannot move forward with deliberations in the absence of final appeals and deliberations reports.

Until the reports are received, issues raised on the conflict resolution panel, cannot be implemented.

“Workers aren’t speaking from the same mouth and dissidents are using the wage dispute to push selfish agendas,” Baloyi says.