The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) is demanding urgent intervention by national and provincial governments in defaulting municipalities which are failing to pay workers their salaries this festive season. The union has called on these municipalities to pay workers what is due to them or they will work with Samwu to take them to court and have their assets attached.
Cosatu spokesperson Matthew Parks said over the past year alone, the number of municipalities defaulting on paying their employees has risen from 20 in 4 provinces to 27 in 6 provinces. "These delinquent municipalities are failing workers who are already battling to cope with a cost-of-living crisis. Some municipalities are deducting taxes, pensions and medical funds from workers' salaries and then failing to transfer those funds as legally required. This has put retiring workers in poverty and seen employees seeking medical treatment being turned away as their medical aids have lapsed," he said.
Parks said that the union is disturbed by the apathetic and indifferent attitude of national and provincial governments and Cogta and Salga. "For the past five years, Cosatu has been calling on the government to put in place a turnaround strategy to revive the 80% of municipalities experiencing financial distress. It is scandalous that the National Treasury which has the ethical responsibility to see to it that the public money is used for its designated purposes and spent within the guidelines of existing legislation across the state, has done little if anything. The Auditor-General has been warning that the accountability for financial and performance management continues to worsen in most municipalities," said Parks, adding that "It is clear we cannot sustain many of the 259 municipalities, many of whom lack a sufficient rate base to sustain them. The collapse in basic services is causing many companies to close and retrench workers in rural towns, creating economic wastelands. Numerous reports show many municipalities have been failing to account accurately for the financial transactions they have carried out with the money entrusted to them."