By OBAKENG MAJE
6 January 2025- The North West Investment (NTI) workers urge the North West Department of Community Safety and Transport Management to ensure that they receive their salaries before the school opening. These workers had a bleak Christmas holiday after they did not receive their salaries.
According to NTI workers’ representative, Patrick Mofamadi, it has been months since they received their salaries. Mofamadi said this matter is excruciating because they are caught between the rock and a hard place.
“This has been happening for a few years. We are caught in between department and Business Rescue Practitioner (BRP). Now, the department alleged that it cannot pay the money into the BRP account. However, they requested him to do undertaking and he did exactly that.
“Now, we want to know what is left because we are suffering as workers. They should not be merciless and pay us with immediate effect. Why should we as workers be affected by court proceedings?” he asked.
Mofamadi further said the appeal can take three years and that means they will be paid after three years.
The South African Workers’ Union (SAWU), General Secretary, Lebusa Mamaregane said they are a little bit happy regarding the stance of the North West Department of Community Safety and Transport Management that it will resolve this matter within 10 days. Mamaragane said, however, they will only celebrate the day the money is in the accounts of the workers because this has been said numerous times.
“This is a victory not only for SAWU, but for all NTI employees who have been subjected to poverty. These workers have been here since 18 December 2024, and until today they are still here. Indeed, this is a hard pill to swallow.
“This is a situation where we know workers had hardships. It is a reality of the matter that workers have been here for many days. We do not have enough that we can offer them, but we assisted where we could,” he said.
Mamaregane said, personally, he did not enjoy his salary because he had to make sure that workers on the ground had to be fed. He said it was a strenuous process for them.
“We urge politicians and government officials not to be heartless to people they hate so much. This does not affect only workers, but also those who are vulnerable and depending on them for survival,” saids Mamaregane.
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,” he said.
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 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 will 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 in spite of the BRP application for a 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 for the purpose of paying employees was prioritised 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 will 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 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 that was used before, to process 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. There are employees that have allegedly been paid whilst others are being made to suffer.
“The NTI is a 3-D company which must generate its own 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 clearly 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. It is regrettable that 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 authorised 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 would have made sure that there is a solution to that challenge of salaries,” said Morweng.
The Guardian 