Staff Reporter.
Employees of the Ditsobotla Local Municipality in the North West will not be receiving their monthly salaries after the municipality said that they will not receive their May salary.
In a letter that Fullview has seen, Municipal Manager, Mamorena Lethoko, indicated that due to the critical financial situation faced by the municipality, it is regrettable that salaries for May will not be paid until further notice.
Ditsobotla has been having trouble since the last local elections in 2021, and it’s now under a coalition government led by the Patriotic Alliance.
The South African Municipal Workers Union in North West’s secretary, Vincent Diphoko,said they are disturbed that workers are faced with such incidents, citing that it is demoralising staff morale.
Lethoko also indicated that claims and overtime work will be paid once the main salaries are paid first.
The African National Congress (ANC) in North West said they were disappointed by news that the employees would not be paid but assured that they would attend to the matter and resolve it as soon as possible.
The ANC Provincial Secretary, Louis Diremelo, said that creditors who were also providing services were also not paid, “so we are trying so hard to speak to both the finance MEC and district municipality for intervention.”
He agreed that salary matters have been going on for far too long and it’s only because the municipality has been in a bad shape and functioning as expected.
“We are working on a strategy to take the municipality out of this state. The municipality is collapsing, we might want to do something drastic to ensure it survives,” he said.
Compiled by Lehlohonolo Lehana.