30 January 2015 R1-20/FREE
Bela-Bela
Municipality
Morris Maluleka addressed protesting municipal employees on Monday, 26 January. Photo: TK Mashaba.
Municipal employees overturned trashcans and hurled papers during their protest. Photo: TK Mashaba. TK Mashaba Bela-Bela municipal workers downed tools on Monday, 26 January after a delay on the payments which were due on Friday, 23 January. The workers overturned dustbins and refused service while they demanded their salaries. According to the information The BEAT was able to gather, the municipality is alleged to have a large backlog of payments for service providers. “This is a sad situation,” said a municipal worker who spoke to The BEAT under condition of anonymity.
workers shut down offices after delay in payment
Municipal cars parked during a protest by workers demanding their payments on Monday 26 January. Photo: TK Mashaba.
“We have bills and accounts to pay. How can they delay our payments? This has never happened before.” Rumours ran rampant in the crowd on Monday, with some saying that the municipality is paying more than R1 million per month for rented trucks, while some say that it might have been better to buy their own truck. Matome Sebelebele, the municipality’s spokesperson, said that he was aware of what the workers were suffering, but added that the delay was due to a system issue. “Remember, we use different banks for paying different individuals, and some
might have received their payments on time while others suffered a delay,” he said. Municipal manager Morris Maluleka managed to calm the situation when he delivered an address on the payment issue. “As you all know, you are getting paid using a Cash Focus system. You were expecting payment on Friday, but what happened was that some of the transactions did go through on Friday, while others were not processed,” he said. “I realized the problem on Friday, but you know they don’t work on weekends. I asked the municipality
to do cheques to the bank so that they can process your payment, but the only bank which could assist us was ABSA.” Maluleka told the employees that they should all have received their payments by Monday afternoon, and urged workers to return to work. He also urged municipal employees to have a positive approach to problems rather than “closing the municipality and trashing papers.” At the time of going to press some, but not all, municipal employees had been paid, and most of the municipal employees had returned to service.