By OBAKENG MAJE
7 January 2025- The South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) has urged its affiliated members, who are North West Investment (NTI) employees to return to work. This comes after employees downed tools in the middle of December 2024, over non-payment of their salaries.
SATAWU secretary, Muneiwa Mugwena said they urge their members who are in good standing to desist from embarking on illegal strike or they will face consequences.
“As we might all have heard the briefing from the North West MEC for Community Safety and Transport Management, Wessels Morweng today about the situation in our company. We urge all SATAWU members in good standing to not engage in illegal strikes and continue to work towards the betterment of our company.
“There is going to be consequences for everyone who is involved in this illegal strike and we don’t want you to be part of it. As Morweng has announced today on the media platform, Business Rescue Practitioner (BRP) is going to leave our country and everyone will be held accountable for their actions,” he said.
Mugwena further said employees should wait for the 10 days until they receive their salaries, but they should continue to be doing their jobs.
Meanwhile, the North West MEC for Community Safety and Transport Management, Wessels Morweng said: “The challenges facing NTI are not and have not been ignored by our department. The entity’s challenges, though going back for several years, had been compounded and exacerbated by the BRP.
“Given the financial difficulties and collapse of governance the NTI experienced, the shareholder resolved to put the entity under voluntary business rescue process in July 2022.”
Morweng said the BRP was supposed to turn the entity around to make it more sustainable and generate income to pay creditors, primarily of whom are employees. He said to do this, the BRP was supposed to have developed a plan within 25 days as stipulated by the Companies Act.
“However, the BRP has since dismissed and suspended most senior managers of the entity with the Group Chief Financial Officer, CFO, being the latest. This act of impunity was not only for senior managers but since his arrival, many other employees have also been sacked.
“As a result of this, there is a vacuum at the management level and the BRP’s incompetence has been exposed. Over the last 30 months, the department and the Gauteng Provincial Government have paid over R600 million to the entity without any financial accountability by the BRP,” said Morweng.
He said this amount is not inclusive of the multi-journey ticket sales and other operational revenue collected. Morweng said the department has written numerous letters to the BRP asking for accountability and all the letters went un-replied.
“Following the failure of the BRP to submit progress reports and accounts to the department, the matter of removing him was pursued through the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria.
“After successfully removing him, the BRP then indicated that he would apply for a leave to appeal the High Court ruling. The department then lodged a Section 18 of the Superior Court Act application seeking an implementation of the initial order for the removal of the BRP,” he said.
He said the purpose of this Section 18 move is to ensure that the court ruling is enforced despite the BRP application for leave to appeal. Morweng said it is for this reason that the posture of the department is not to transfer any money to the BRP, as previously money sent to pay employees was prioritized for purposes unknown to the department.
“It has recently been widely reported that the North West Provincial Treasury has allocated R75 million to the Department of Community Safety and Transport Management for NTI. Let me clarify that this is incorrect. As outlined in the official Treasury allocation letter, the actual amount is R65 million.
“It should also be noted that the department has made an advance payment of over R18 600 000 to the entity in June 2024. This advance was provided to cover NTI employees’ salaries,” said Morweng.
He said this was facilitated through LabourNet as it was the only option that could be used with certainty that the salaries would be paid. Morweng said taking these factors into account, the correct available amount therefore is just above R46 379 000.
“This is because the R18m referred to earlier is refundable to the department. The department is still to receive a formal report from the NTI on the specific usage of this R18m.
“This report should include a detailed expenditure breakdown, necessary for confirmation and compliance verification. Of late, the BRP has appointed a service provider who is deducting a 2% admin fee from employees, which is unlawful,” he said.
Morweng said from the payroll that was processed by the BRP service provider, a total of R223 000 was deducted from employees, who were paid in March 2024. He said the service provider which is preferred by the BRP is charging this exorbitant service fee and takes two weeks to process salaries of the employees whilst the LabourNet which was used before, processes salaries within a day.
“Some of the NTI employees have alleged that the BRP is selective in paying salaries and has been divisive in his approach. Some employees have allegedly been paid whilst others are being made to suffer.
“The NTI is a 3-D company that must generate its income and pay its creditors including salaries of the employees. As the company operates routes in Gauteng Province, it receives a subsidy of about R60 million every month,” said Morweng.
He said the NTI’s income from this subsidy alone should enable it to run profitably, but the BRP priorities are not for the benefit of the entity. Morweng said his department is a shareholder representative of the entity and does not budget for NTI.
“Since the BRP was appointed by the NTI to turn it around, it has not produced even a single report to the department nor account to the shareholder has refused to appear before the Portfolio Committee, and yet wants money from the government.
“Rightfully, the BRP, as the accounting officer of NTI, must respond to non-payment of the salaries of the employees. Regrettably, the BRP has been using the desolate state of employees that he had not paid to come to Mahikeng to demonstrate,” he said.
According to Moweng, the buses that he is sending here should be operating and generating money for the entity. He said the BRP has authorized buses to ferry employees to Mahikeng, who had been here since the middle of December 2024.
“This means production at the entity was affected as both the employees and the buses were here. My appeal to all NTI employees is that they should be part of the solution to the entity and not the problem and go back to work as we are busy trying to come up with a permanent solution.
“As the caring government, we can’t leave the entity to die. Our interest as shareholders is to see the employees being paid. Our team is looking into the possibilities of making sure that this is done and within ten days we will have made sure that there is a solution to that challenge of salaries,” said Morweng.
The Guardian 