The municipal spokesperson, Solomzi Phama, tells OFM News that workers were evacuated from the head office in Trompsburg Monday morning by their colleagues who have not received their salaries for the month of September 2022. He says some of these workers have already raised concerns that they will also not get paid at the end of this month.

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OFM News previously reported that the Kopanong Municipality is among several municipalities in the province which survive mainly on the national government's equitable share. The municipality cannot collect enough revenue for services rendered, due to a large group of indigent people which the municipality must provide with clean water and electricity, amongst other services. Phama, however, states that interventions will be made.

“We are planning to engage the workers on means of resolving this issue and I am adamant that the political leadership will be meeting with the employees to find an amicable solution to this problem,” he adds.

ALSO READ: Kopanong employees not paid in two months

Last year, 450 municipal workers at the ailing Trompsburg-based Kopanong Local Municipality were affected by the non-payment of their salaries. Workers were left frustrated and desperate after the municipal account was attached by a Free State High Court judgment, owing to a R26 million pension fund debt. The municipality would not confirm where it got the funds from since its last couple of attempts to pay these salaries failed because they were deemed illegal. The Free State High Court judgment attached the municipality’s bank account after failing to pay workers' pension contributions to the pension fund since 2012.

However, the head of Cogta, Mokete Duma, previously said that the department, together with the municipality, had developed a financial recovery plan aimed at dealing with the financial crisis besieging the municipality.

According to Cogta, free basic municipal services are services provided at no charge by the government to poor households. The services currently include water and electricity. These services are provided by municipalities and include a minimum amount of electricity, water, and sanitation that is sufficient to cater for the basic needs of a poor household. (https://www.cogta.gov.za/index.php/tag/free-basic-services/)

OFM News