Pretoria Tshwane protest Samwu

Samwu members protesting in the City of Tshwane. Image via: Democratic Alliance (DA)

City of Tshwane agrees to Samwu wage increase

The streets of Tshwane CBD were brought to a standstill with roads blocked, property vandalised and businesses forced to close down

Pretoria Tshwane protest Samwu

Samwu members protesting in the City of Tshwane. Image via: Democratic Alliance (DA)

The City of Tshwane has acceded to the demands of the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu), and has given the green light for 6.25% salary hikes.

Administrators have been presiding over the municipality’s affairs since March, after it was left leaderless due to political clashes over service delivery. The decision to place the city under administration was announced by Gauteng’s MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta).

While details surrounding the deal are yet to be clarified by Samwu, BusinessDay has cited head administrator Mpho Nawa, who said increases the city’s wage bill by R45m every month.

The streets of Tshwane CBD were brought to a standstill on Tuesday, 21 July 2020, with roads blocked, property vandalised and businesses forced to close down. The chaos continued well throughout most of the week.

‘The City is facing challenges’

“The city is broke because revenue has declined. They are fortunate they still have jobs. Covid-19 is not only a national problem, but a global pandemic. I don’t understand why they can’t see the city is facing challenges”, Nawa is quoted as saying.

The special Local Labour Forum (LLF) had held a meeting with administrators and representatives of Samwu and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) to discuss the implementation of the 6.25% annual wage increase and the hotly disputed benchmarking collective agreement.

Nawa said both unions disputed the City’s request to make a proposal on how the 6.25% could be structured, adding that it was unfortunate because the administrators had reported the state of the City’s finances during the meeting that was held on Thursday, 16 July 2020.

“On the 16th of July 2020, the administrators confirmed to the Local Labour Forum that amongst other commitments, the City will pay the 6.25% salary increase which is due to workers. An instruction was issued to officials to load money for payment. It is unfortunate that on Monday, 20 July 2020, administrators took a unilateral decision to reverse such payments”, Samwu said in a statement.

The union further added that it has since given administrators an ultimatum to confirm that all collective agreements would be respected and implemented and that they had until 12h00 on Wednesday, 22 July 2020, to assure workers that all will be covered on Friday, 24 July 2020.