The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu ) march comes only a day after Free State Premier, Sisi Ntombela, visited Fauresmith and Jagersfontein regarding service delivery concerns in the same municipality. 

Samwu provincial chairperson, Dumisane Magagula, told OFM News the R56 million that was deducted from employees’ salaries over the 14-year period was never paid over to the Pension Fund. Magagula says this means that employees who were hired by the municipality after 2003, have not been registered with the pension fund, because they’ve technically never contributed to the fund - despite their pay slips indicating the contrary.

Magagula says there are cases where retired employees cannot access their pensions. On top of that, he says in the last three month, the municipality has not paid over employees’ medical aid contributions. He says they are owed R4,1 million for this. He says councillors and director’s medical aids are, however, up to date.

 Magagula says the municipality’s finances are in dire straits. He says the municipality is not committed to changing its financial situation. The Mayor, Xolile Matwa, is alleged to regularly change cars, and they continue to hire people permanently, rather than being on fixed-term contracts, without following the correct procedures.  

Meanwhile, the Jagersfontein community awaits water supply in the town to return. This comes after Ntombela promised residents that water supply will be restored by today, the latest. She says the provincial government has decided to allocate some of its budget to help Kopanong Municipality make the payment to Bloem Water, so that residents can have access to water. The municipality is said to owe the water board R250 million.

OFM News