Brink: No salary hikes for Tshwane employees, councillors
Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink has warned the municipality’s employees they will have to do without a salary increase this year.
Brink, who has only been in office for some three weeks, briefed the media on the cash-strapped metro’s finances on Monday.
“The decision to not budget for any salary increase, both for employees and councillors, is a matter of necessity,” Brink said.
“Aside from bulk electricity purchases, salaries are the biggest expense to the municipality. But let me make it clear that the city will not step outside the collective bargaining process.
“We are not proposing to breach the agreement but we will invoke the clause of the collective agreement that deals with exemptions and we will justify the case on that basis and the city’s ability to pay.”
Political instability in Tshwane has had a devastating impact on service delivery, with residents experiencing continuous water and electricity cuts.
Council also failed to pass the city’s adjustment budget for a third time in a row on Friday when opposition parties comprising of mainly the ANC and EFF voted against it.
This could see the city being placed under administration by the provincial department of Cooperative Governance.
Brink believes that political stability is needed to ensure the correct decisions are taken in council.
“Ensuring a measure of political stability so that critical policy decisions can be made and carried out and not reversed.”
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