Firefighters in Tubatse, in the Sekhukhune District Municipality in Limpopo, have downed tools after not receiving their salaries for two months.
The Tubatse fire station services Burgersfort, Orighstad town, and over 50 villages. The municipality says it will comment after investigating the matter.
Workers say they are unable to make ends meet.
“For the past three weeks, we have had engagements with the CFO and other employees in various departments. None of them gave us accurate answers as to why we have not yet been paid. We have asked the municipality to at least give us letters to show our landlords and places we have accounts with, and even funeral cover companies, to show them we are not defaulting on purpose. They refused with that letter. We told them if they continue refusing to pay us, we will be here every day.”
An opposition party in the Sekhukhune District Municipality has expressed concern about the non-payment of firefighters.
The Socialist Agenda for Dispossessed Africans (SADA) says that the workers also don’t have personal protective equipment.
SADA leader Aubrey Ngwatle has called on the district authorities to urgently address the problem.
“We are very concerned that 92% of the staff complement are volunteers or under EPWP, of which they are not being paid as per their contracts. We are also very concerned about the state of the trucks and the bakkies; they are not working, and they don’t have sirens, which means in the event of an emergency, drivers will be unable to give way. Also, workers do not even have uniforms or PPE,” he says.
