Samwu happy with Salga-Eskom deal
JOBURG - The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) recently voiced their happiness with the news of South African Local Government Association (Salga) and Eskom finally reaching an agreement on electricity supply to municipalities.
Samwu deputy general secretary, Koena Ramotlou, said that when Eskom announced a few months ago that it would not be supplying electricity to municipalities which were in arrears, Samwu objected, noting that the worst affected would be the poor.
Ramatlou said, “We trust that this agreement would ensure that there is uninterrupted electricity supply to all municipalities so as not to impede on local economies’ growth and, most importantly, ordinary South Africans and the poor.
“We further trust that Eskom will not threaten the country with blackouts again as a result of municipalities’ failure to pay money owed to it.”
Samwu’s recent 11th National Congress noted that the majority of the country’s municipalities were facing challenges, many of them financial. The congress also noted that municipalities have failed to recoup money owed to them for services rendered, mainly because people do not have the money to pay.
“We are, however, of the view that our people should not be denied municipal services as a result of their inability to pay for such services. We firmly believe that denial of services as a result of one’s economic situation would be a gross violation of human rights,” he said.
However, Ramotlou also said the congress noted that most municipalities have failed on their contractual obligations to ensure that money that has been deducted from municipal workers’ salaries is paid to third parties such as medical aid, pension funds and funeral schemes. He said these ‘illegal practices’ have created problems for municipal workers as they were unable to access healthcare and funeral payouts because their policies were not up-to-date.
Ramotlou said, “This practice is very worrying and is an indication that municipalities are cash-strapped as they are unable to keep up with their contractual obligations. We, therefore, urge Salga to come up with more constructive ways of revenue collection, including increasing its budget by requesting an increase in the equitable share from the National Treasury.
“It can’t be that the country’s 278 municipalities are expected to service the 50 plus million South Africans on a shoestring budget. Municipalities exist solely for the delivery of services and not profit-making.”
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