Tshwane Administrator condemns appaling behaviour

21 JULY 2020

Tshwane Head Administrator Mpho Nawa has strongly condemned the appalling behaviour by protesting SAMWU members who damaged the municipality’s Head Office – Tshwane House, emptied the wheelie bins and trashed the CBD streets with litter earlier today.

“The right to strike is entrenched in the Constitution, but no one has the right to damage the property of the municipality and trash the streets with litter. This behaviour borders on criminality. We hope that the police will do their job and bring to book the responsible culprits,” Nawa said.

On 20 July 2020, the special Local Labour Forum (LLF) meeting was held between the Administrators and the representatives of both SAMWU and IMATU. The purpose of the meeting was to conclude on the two agenda items , namely : (1) implementation of the 6.25% annual wage increase and (2) implementation of the bench marking collective agreement. These items had not been concluded from the previous meeting held on 16 July 2020.

It is unfortunate to note that this meeting could not conclude on these matters due to the fact that SAMWU leadership walked out of the meeting and, as such, the meeting collapsed as there was no quorum.The main issue that was disputed by both union leadership was around the City’s request to make a proposal on how the modalities of 6.25% could be structured.

This was unfortunate especially because in the previous special LLF meeting held on 16 July 2020 the Administrators made a compelling case regarding the state of the City’s finances, a concern that has also been raised by National Treasury.

This is besides the fact in all the interactions between the Administrators and Union leadership, the City reiterated its commitment to honour the agreed 6.25% wage increment agreement and this was restated at this meeting.

However, it was important for parties to be appraised of all these factors that the City is confronted with and this was done in the spirit of transparency and collective responsibility so as to navigate these challenges.

It is public knowledge that over the passage of time the City’s revenue has been declining and this problem was compounded by under collection due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

These challenges are not only pervasive to the city of Tshwane, but all sectors of our economy are bleeding as a result of Coronavirus pandemic.

A summary of the City’s finances is as follows:

• Actual average collection for April 2020 to June 2020 was 68%.
• This equals to a loss of income for the three months of more than R2,8 billion
• The revenue in the budget is earned and cash collected during the year
• The amount shown as revenue is NOT available in cash at the beginning of the year.
• Employee costs increased from 30% of operational expenditure to 31,5% of operational expenditure in the 2020/2021 Financial Year.

In the 2020/2021 budget, R931 million (12%) had to be cut from materials, contracted services, transfers, and general expenditure.
This will impact on the delivery of services.
Our projections indicate that if nothing changes, the City is likely to have a shortfall of R5 billion by the end of the 2020/21 Financial Year, thus running a risk of not being able to honour its financial obligations, including salaries.
It is against this background, that the Administrators took a conscious decision that while they appreciate the currently existing agreements, however, they cannot be reckless and make decisions that bankrupt the City.
Since the Administrators arrival in the City, a clarion call has constantly been made to all employees to redirect their energies towards serving the people of Tshwane.
Nawa said the City remained committed in honouring the collective agreement within the affordability limits.
“As we continue with our negotiations with union leadership, we call upon all employees to have a full appreciation of the financial challenges the City finds itself in. As Administrators, we want to see our employees happy , employed and avoid futureretrenchments. Thus our position to honour 6.25 % wage increment remains on the table and we have NOT reneged on this commitment that we have communicated to union leadership”.
“With regards to the implementation of the benchmarking collective agreement, we have stated in the meeting that, as we deal with the 6.25% wage increment, the City is not in a position to even begin engaging with labour on this matter. We also call upon all leaders to be sensitive to these prevailing realities”.
“We therefore appeal to both union leadership, to come back to the boardroom so that we can resolve all the outstanding issues without compromising service delivery, and most importantly the lives of our employees when our City is engulfed by the COVID-19 storm. We will continue exploring and implementing all measures to ensure that we improve our revenue collection as part of the long term agenda of building a financially sustainable City and increase our reserves,” Nawa said.

Issued by Communication, Marketing and Events Department.