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Today is the self-imposed deadline for the City of Tshwane to file an exemption application responding to the South African Local Bargaining Council order.

SALGBC ordered the municipality to pay workers a 5.4% salary increase as of 1 July; increase the minimum wage to R9,531.54; and increase the homeowner’s allowance to R1,011.77.

The figures were agreed upon in 2021. However, when the City of Tshwane tabled its R46.9-billion budget for the 2022/23 financial year, it cited budget constraints as the reason for a 0% increase for workers. 

With annual headline inflation sitting at 5,4% in June, the workers took to the streets on an unprotected strike demanding their increase.

Whilst the GOOD party does not agree with workers being involved in an unprotected strike and bringing the city’s service to its knees, as GOOD we do feel the city needs to take responsibility for the mess it finds itself in.

Mayor Cilliers Brink maintains the city cannot afford the increase that is estimated to cost R600-million.

And as GOOD we do not deny this, the state of the city’s finances is dire. 

But what the DA mayor has failed to acknowledge is that it is the DA’s history of leadership in the city that landed us in this situation.

Between November 2019 and October 2020, under the DA’s Randall Williams, the city hired 627 waste management workers under a 12-month contract. R88-million was spent on their hiring, yet workers were never allocated work – according to Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke. 

This pattern of misspending has continued for years unchecked. 

The Auditor-General 2021/2022 report exposed gross financial misconduct in Tshwane. 

The city had racked up irregular expenditure of more than R10-billion; unauthorised expenditure of more than R600-million; and Fruitless and wasteful expenditure understated by more than R1-billion; and Leave pay amounting to more than R800-million not properly accounted for.

The GOOD Party calls on the city to show leadership and not make the poor and middle-class pay for their mistakes.

Whilst the workers struggle to make ends meet, those who make these decisions continue to live in luxury. 

Issued by GOOD City of Tshwane Councillor Sarah Mabotsa