The Impendle Local Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands has blamed the failure to pay salaries to its employees on time on a financial dispute with the National Treasury.
It stated yesterday that its funds had been erroneously taken by the National Treasury and that had resulted in the municipality failing to pay workers’ salaries and benefits in full and on time. Approximately 100 employees have been affected by the payroll issue, but the municipality claimed yesterday that the matter has now been resolved with the National Treasury.
However, councillors have expressed concerns and said, based on meetings they had with the municipality’s management, the municipality is in deep financial trouble. They allege that it has been borrowing monthly to pay wages and that this is the second time in as many months that there have been issues with salary payments.
In response, the council denied that it was borrowing monthly to pay wages. It also disputed claims that it is in dire financial straits, stating that this was a one-off problem as a result of the dispute with the National Treasury.
Zakhele Tshabalala, municipal manager, stated: “We want to assure our employees that the municipality’s management is actively working to resolve this issue. We are taking immediate steps to address the root cause of the delay and ensure that salaries are paid as soon as possible. To this end, we are currently engaging with the National Treasury and other relevant stakeholders to expedite the process.”
However IFP councillor in Impendle, Sadewu Ngubane claimed the situation is dire. “We are having to borrow money just to pay salaries each month. We have been told that part of the problem is that there is a grant of about R11 million that went back to the National Treasury after the municipality failed to spend it.”
Ngubane noted that the problems have been ongoing since November. Last month, there was a similar issue in which wages were not paid on time. He explained that the administration had gone to the bank to borrow money, but outstanding documents prevented the bank from processing the application. After submitting the documents, the money was paid two days later.
“This time around, employees received a notice from the municipal manager on Friday, the day they were supposed to be paid, stating that they would not be receiving their salaries. At a meeting on Saturday, they were informed that the bank had demanded a letter from the National Treasury as assurance that money would be deposited into the municipality’s account. As it stands, they are still working on that, and the workers have not been paid.
“The situation in this municipality is quite serious. Looking at these developments, it is clear that even the banks are reluctant to lend the municipality money because they realise it is in a dire financial situation. “As we speak now, the municipality is essentially closed; only security personnel are present, and the workers are staying away,” Ngubane said.
He added that the MEC of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) must intervene.
“The argument that some grant was taken away, causing the municipality to spiral financially, does not make sense.”
“We need a financial expert to be brought in because even if the treasury makes a deposit, in a few weeks or a month, we will be back in this situation because the financial problems that cause all this would not have been solved,” he said.
DA councillor Thami Sithole agreed that a financial expert had to be brought in. Sithole is a councillor in another municipality but has been deployed to lead the party’s constituency in Impendle.
“We are going to be asking for a deep investigation into what happened and action to be taken against those that led to this situation,” he said.
Cogta said yesterday that after its deployment of senior officials to the municipality, a resolution had been reached and workers were expected to be paid today.
THE MERCURY
