Picture: One of the placards at Naledi Service Point in Vryburg/Morongwa News
By OBAKENG MAJE
The smooth running operations at North West Social Development’s service points in Vryburg and Ganyesa were affected on Monday. This comes after aggrieved security guards locked the gates of these service points demanding their three months’ salaries.
This left North West Social Development employees stranded.
According to one of the security guards, who refused to be named for fear of reprisal and works for Mabotwane Security Services, it’s been three months since they received their salaries.
Mabotwane Security Services company is contracted to the North West Social Development to guard some of the service points offices across the province.
“We barricaded the gates because we cannot work without being paid. This has affected our livelihoods and imagine how are we going to survive. We also have bills to pay, but our company keeps on giving us empty promises.
“Most of us are behind with our policy payments. Imagine if something happens to our family members. How are we going to handle the whole situation? Other security guards have been evicted from their rental homes because they were not able to pay rent,” he said.
Meanwhile, the North West Social Development spokesperson, Petrus Siko said they are aware of the matter. Siko said as the department, they have an obligation in terms of Treasury Regulation 8.2.3 to settle the invoices within 30 days upon receipt.
“However, during April and May this year, the department has been experiencing delays in processing payments of security services claims due to non-compliant vouchers. The delays of payments are attributed to non-submission or incomplete timesheets, incorrect invoices, and no submission of incident reports.
“As a way of intervention, the department will soon conduct a workshop with all contracted security companies to address the current challenges. We fully understand the plight and the inconvenience caused by the delays in paying the security officers,” he said.
Siko further said they request calm and patience as they work towards resolving the challenges at hand.
*The Mabotwane Security Services was not available for comment at the time we published the article. However, we will incorporate its comment in the article when received.
The Guardian 