With annual wage talks deadlocked, workers are steadily losing faith and confidence in local government, reports Glenda Daniels
Poised on the brink of a massive strike, municipal workers are expressing bitter disillusionment with the African National Congress, saying they have been betrayed.
Representatives of more than 200?000 members of the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (Imatu) are putting the blame squarely on the shoulders of the government for the looming showdown over a living wage and their tenuous job situations.
Annual wage talks are deadlocked. Labour has rejected the government’s offer of a 5% increase, wanting 10% or R300 across-the-board and a minimum wage of R1?900.
Municipal workers around the country are steadily losing faith and confidence in local government, with some branches wondering why they bothered canvassing during local government elections last year.
“The morale is low, the mood is angry, workers are vulnerable and insecure about their jobs. We cannot rule out strike action if we don’t get a 10% or R300 across-the-board increase,” says Samwu president Petrus Mashishi.
Workers are saying that this is central government’s fault. Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel is not funding local government adequately yet central government is expecting local government to be successful.
“But what is shocking and unacceptable to us is that while we are fighting for a minimum wage of R 1?900, local government managers, councillors and mayors are getting massive increases,” says Mashishi.
According to a Government Gazette in December last year, a mayor earns R274?494 a year, with a cellphone allowance, travelling allowance (a hefty 25% of the salary), housing allowance, pension and medical aid benefits.
“Through outsourcing to private companies workers have lost massive benefits, sometimes years and years of money. There is a lot of anger,” says Mashishi.
In an open letter to Father Smangaliso Mkhatshwa, chair of the South African Local Government Association, a Samwu branch in Mpumalanga writes: “You are now becoming a threat to the workers, even the community itself. The 5% is promoting poverty to the people. We were busy convincing people to cast their vote for the ANC, so that the ANC can end poverty. Now it seems like the person at the top forgets about other people.
“Chief, it looks like the Mandela government were 100% better than the existing government. Workers are the ones who make this government move forward if you talk about service delivery to the people, we are the ones who do the job.”
Douglas Baartman of the Plettenberg municipality says: “Workers here are also angry. They want to march to the council because councillors are getting 25% increases for what? Doing a good job at outsourcing, so that workers can be retrenched.
“What’s more, we all worked hard to ensure this council is a majority ANC one, it’s the only one in the southern Cape. Now workers are feeling betrayed. What is the difference between having voted for the ANC instead of the Democratic Alliance? Now we are saying we voted for them last year and this year they are taking away our jobs.”
Khotso Maduna of the Petrus Steyn local council in the Free State says: “People are getting outsourced here they are feeling regretful and guilty about who they voted for. Workers are saying they cannot survive on a 5% increase. It’s painful. When the economic situation is bad at home children turn to crime, and it’s happening. We are not asking for luxuries, just a living wage.”
A hardening of attitudes prevails in the predominately white and apolitical Imatu. National labour relations manager for Imatu Leon Grobler says: “If we don’t move up from the 5% to 8% in the negotiations, there is going to be big trouble. For the past few years municipal workers have been receiving below-inflation increases and they have had enough.”
And so the saga continues local governments blames the national government and the national government blames local governments.
Manuel says: “Local government is an autonomous sphere of government and makes its own decisions with regards to budgeting for salaries or other items. The critical issue facing local government is to increase its capacity to deliver on free basic services. Local government needs to determine the right balance between service delivery and expenditure on salaries.”
Manuel says total local government expenditure grew by 6% a year between 1998/99 and 2000/01, and the fastest-growing item has been salary expenditure.
However, workers at the bottom end of the scale have not received inflation-rate increases for a few years.