By REGINALD KANYANE
The smooth running operation at the embattled Ditsobotla Local Municipality in Lichtenburg, North West was affected on Wednesday (4 January 2023). This comes after disgruntled contract workers whose contracts were terminated in November 2022, allegedly went on a rampage and trashed official documents, which they collected from municipal offices in the streets.
On Wednesday (4 January 2023), the official documents could be seen strewn on the streets in Lichtenburg town. According to the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) chairperson in Ditsobotla, Makebe Kgotlhabeng, the contract workers stormed into municipal offices and demand their December salaries.
However, Kgotlhabeng said even though they condemn the actions of the contract workers, the municipality should also take full responsibility of what happened.
“These workers continued to report for duty during December month without any written or verbal communication from the municipality regarding their contracts.
“However, they were told that their contracts were terminated when they demand December salaries. There were also allegations that, some contract workers were paid their December salaries, so that has sparked this action,” he said.
The municipality spokesperson, Pius Batsile said, they have probed allegations and investigations are underway.
“There are people who continue to spread wrong information that, there are some contract workers who were paid their December month salaries. Those rumours caused some contract workers to storm into the municipal offices and demand their December salaries from the municipality.
“However, as the municipality, we want to put it on record that no contract workers were paid December salaries. We have launched investigations into the matter to get to the bottom of it. So, if there is any truth to it, the municipality will pay those contract workers who have not received their December salaries,” he said.
Meanwhile, the North West MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs, Nono Maloyi said: “We condemn in the strongest possible terms an incident in Ditsobotla, in which documents belonging to the municipality were destroyed and disposed of on the streets of Lichtenburg.
“It is unfortunate that the workers reacted in that manner and has called for stricter security measures to be put in place in all municipal buildings. We will not tolerate this kind of behaviour, be it from officials, councillors nor members of the
public.”
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