In 2018, the office of the Democratic Alliance through Hon. James Letuka, was approached by 22 workers of the former Naledi Local Municipality, to intervene in their plight of having been dismissed unlawfully and unfairly from work in 2013.
This matter, according to the available records was taken to the CCMA and to the Labour Court. Both these instances ruled that the workers should be:
- Reinstated into their positions; and
- Be paid their salaries with retention of their benefits.
The Municipality contested the issue and as such had proceeded to take the Labour Court’s judgement on review, which application had been dismissed with costs. SAMWU successfully represented the workers in this litigation. Despite their fruitless endeavour, the Municipality again filed an application for leave to appeal, which was subsequently dismissed with costs.
The resultant consequence of the aforesaid transaction, means that a warrant of execution had been granted by the Labour Court in favour of SAMWU, to directly attach and take into execution the movable goods belonging to the Municipality, to realise proceeds through way of public auction, in an attempt to recover the amount owing by the Municipality.
The DA in the Free State have taken it upon themselves to drive the matter towards reaching a favourable outcome for the workers and as such, are astounded by the lack of empathy exhibited by the Municipality in handling the aforesaid circumstances, and presumably the political motives behind the Municipality’s failure to reinstate the workers.
We as the DA want to see that the affected workers of the Municipality are reinstated into their positions, and are paid their salaries together with the retention of their benefits.
The ANC’s continued alliance with trade unions represents a recipe for disaster, as continued political interference has restricted the ability of employees to assert their rights against provincial organs of state.
The DA shall continue to monitor the situation and keep the public abreast of the mismanagement of municipalities within the Free State. The office of the DA remains hopeful that meaningful measures may be implemented to alleviate the hardships experienced by the workers. Alternatively, municipalities shall have to answer to our courts when their movable assets, which funded by taxpayers, are attached in execution.