Members of the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) at the Matjhabeng Municipality have threatened to take the municipality to court if it doesn’t meet their demands.
Hundreds of Samwu members marched in Welkom to hand over a memorandum of demands.
Some municipal workers claim to be exploited and work under unbearable conditions.
They demand the Executive Mayor, Thanduxolo Khalipha to resign.
Allegations of nepotism, harassment and exploitation have surfaced at the Matjhabeng Municipality.
Workers claim to be working under strenuous conditions, alleging that they’re not supported by the mayor.
The grievances that are stipulated in the memorandum are said to be haunting workers on a daily basis.
Among other things, they demand the mayor to lead by example and respect women, apologise to all women for humiliating them in public and for using belittling words towards them.
They also want the mayor to refrain from forcing them to work abnormal working hours.
Free State SAMWU secretary Tiisetso Mahlatsi says, “Things have changed since the new mayor joined the municipality as he controls everything.”
Disgruntled workers say they have observed a growing trend of nepotism in recruitment of employees. The union demands all unlawful recruitment to be reviewed and reversed.
Political interference in the municipality is said to also be very rife.
It has been mentioned that the municipality’s management have no authority as they are led by a dictator.
Khalipha is accused of controlling who must be paid, when and how much.
Cosatu General Secretary Solly Phetoe says, “Services are not delivered by politicians … are delivered by workers who are exploited and depressed. Imagine these workers don’t have protective clothes and you expect them to go and work in a sewage. What will happen to those workers? The reason to choose Matjhabeng is not because of issues of service delivery. It’s because of issues of workers, because if these workers are not able to go to work there will be no service delivery.”
Samwu members want the mayor to withdraw in the administration and operations of the municipality and play an oversight role.
They also want him to refrain from harassing employees and withdraw from calling workers after hours and during weekends.
After waiting for hours for the mayor, the memorandum wasn’t delivered.
Samwu members refused to hand over the memorandum to the municipal Member of Mayoral Committee for Cooperate Services, demanding the mayor himself.
