SAMWU Welcomes Placement of West Rand District Municipality Under Administration

15 November 2018

The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (SAMWU) notes and welcomes the intention of the Gauteng Province to place the West Rand District Municipality under section 139 (WRDM).  On Wednesday 14 November workers at the WRDM marched to the offices of the Gauteng Premier, David Makhura to request that the  Provincial Government intervene at the municipality.

Workers at the municipality have been protesting for days now as a result of their salaries not been paid in full while third parties such as medical aid, pension funds and funeral policies have not been paid by the municipality.

Already workers are receiving calls from these third parties informing them that payment has not been forthcoming from the municipality, some of the workers are not able to visit doctors as their medical aids are in arrears. We cannot begin to think of the worst wherein a member or their dependent dies but funeral policies refusing to pay up because policies have lapsed as a result of non-payment.

Premier Makhura has since made a commitment that the municipality will be placed under administration in terms of Section 139. We welcome this move as a step in the right direction in addressing the challenges currently faced by the municipality.

In addition to welcoming the decision to place the municipality under administration, we will also be demanding that the appointed administrator institute proceedings against those who illegally invested over R77 million of the municipality with the now liquidated VBS Mutual Bank. We believe that this money would have gone a long way in addressing the liquidity challenges faced by the municipality.

Issued by Siseko Siyothula, Regional Secretary, SAMWU West Rand Region, 15 November 2018