The Regional Secretary of Samwu in Mangaung, Lucky Sebego, tells OFM News that they will be meeting with the council to discuss the way forward after workers had raised their concerns regarding the metro's delayed employment of a City Manager. The council is set to meet on Tuesday to discuss the way forward. He says that workers are concerned that salary payments will not be done in time. This after former acting city manager and accounting officer, Sello More, was removed by the council two to three days before his contract lapsed.

"Our fear as Samwu is that workers won't get their salary, so as a proactive union, we have taken a decision to make sure that we become proactive. We will no longer wait for the problem to appear first, we are acting before the problem can come. We have gathered here in general, meeting with the workers to take the mandate from the workers. The mandate that we got from workers is that workers won't be going to work up until we are guaranteed that we get our salaries on the 24th of February 2022," he adds.

He says they have taken action proactively in order to mitigate any mismanagement or payment hindrances ahead of scheduled payments on Thursday, the 24th of February 2022.

In addition, the outcome of the council sitting taking place on Tuesday morning at 10:00 in the Bloemfontein City Hall will largely determine the attendance of municipal workers at work, adds Sebogo. This is after municipal workers requested that a city manager be appointed prior to "payday".

"If they appoint a city manager, our issues will be covered, the workers will go to work," explains Sebogo.

Municipal workers are waiting in anticipation for a response pending the outcome of the council sitting.

This is a developing story.


OFM News/Kekeletso Mosebetsi and Lee Simmons