Striking workers in Limpopo demand payment
Nehawu in Limpopo on Wednesday rejected a proposal to have its striking members return to work at the Vhembe District Municipality while the council seeks money to pay millions of rands owed to them.
Over four hundred workers, including water specialists in the municipality, downed tools and left dams and reservoirs unattended, meaning water levels would continue to dwindle.
They were protesting against what they called the municipality’s failure to ensure they were paid subsidies which was a condition attached to their transfer from the water affairs department to the municipality in 2005.
Nehawu provincial chairman Calvin Chamano said the patience of their members has been “overstretched by ten years”.
Speaking to the African News Agency (ANA) after talks with the municpality collapsed on Wednesday, Chamano said: “Last week they promised our members that payment will be made on Friday, and it passes with nothing deposited in their account. We want this to be done before they could return to work.”
Workers are also demanding benefits they lost when they were declared municipality officials.
“We are aware that people will not be getting water, we are even more worried that that for years the patience of our members have been stretched,” Chamano said.
“They did not do administrative justice on this matter, its a bit unfair.”
Workers remained gathered at the municipality parking lot on Wednesday afternoon where they were staging a silent protest.
The municipality said the impact of water shortages was beginning to show, and said the area would soon run dry if workers didn’t return to work.
Municipality spokesperson Matodzi Ralushai confirmed that the workers were on strike, and expressed fears that dams level were dropping with no water coming.
He said the municipality was aware of striking workers’ concerns and was seeking spreadsheet records from the water affairs department to determine who qualified for the subsidy payments.
The municipality and Nehawu are at odds over the number of employees who qualify for the subsidies.
The union said all members who were transferred should be paid, while the municipality says only 120 are eligible for payment.
Ralushai said: “We are still trying to get the records from the department. Once we get the records we will pay. We cannot just pay because our books are monitored by the auditor general and we must account.”