Traffic in Ballito was grid-locked for about an hour this morning as striking municipal workers demonstrated, vowing to descend on the town’s Nokukhanya Luthuli municipal building daily.

Represented by the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu), the group marched from the Ballito Taxi Rank, disrupting mid-morning traffic flow and littering Ballito Drive with anything they could find in a show of frustration over stalled salary upgrades and unresolved labour disputes.

At the heart of the protest is the demand for the full implementation of a Grade 5 salary structure, a classification Samwu says has already been approved and budgeted for.

“We demand that the municipality implement the Grade 5 salary scale for all employees. We also call for the completion of job evaluations that began back in 2012,” said the union’s local secretary, Nkululeko Dladla.

Workers are also calling for consequences over the R35.7-million municipal fraud scandal and the suspension of top officials, who they claim are shielded from accountability.

The protest follows similar action in KwaDukuza’s CBD in May, and workers say they won’t back down this time.

Despite the formation of a labour task team, no tangible progress has been made, according to the union, which also criticised the absence of key municipal directors from labour forum meetings.