Ditsobotla Local Municipality employees not paid August salaries

Employees of the Lichtenburg based Ditsobotla Local Municipality in the North West, say they have not been paid for the month of August.  

Workers say the municipality told them it will not be able to process their salaries, due to non-payment of services by their clients.  

This is one of the municipalities in the province placed under financial recovery plan by the provincial government. It has been struggling to pay its workers accordingly.  

Municipal union, SAMWU shop steward in the municipality, Vuyisile Jikimlambo says, “Last week Monday the acting municipal manager promised that on the 1st of September, Friday, they can pay salaries but nothing happened. We do not know what will happen going forward because service providers are starting to call us, the banks and other service providers are starting to say we must make arrangements with them. We do not have money for transport, food so we are frustrated and stranded as we speak.” 

Meanwhile, the municipality says it is in the process of fast-tracking the payments of workers.

Spokesperson for the municipality, Pius Batsile says, “We are currently working hard as the municipality to improve our revenue collection rate. We are doing all possible means to remove all the stops that are affecting revenue collection in order to improve the conditions of cash flow in the municipality. Meanwhile, the provincial Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has sent a team of experts in various fields of administration to Ditsobotla to bolster administration, to bring in service delivery and to address cash flow of the municipality.”