Sunday Times reports that the City of Johannesburg has diverted R4bn from its already stretched capital expenditure budget to spare the city the embarrassment of aggrieved workers disrupting this week’s G20 summit in the full glare of international publicity.
Amid threats by SA Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) representatives to “close down all the freeways”, Joburg mayor Dada Morero and Samwu reached a deal that will see Joburg’s municipal workers being paid the same rate as those in other metros. That should ensure Samwu co-operates to ensure a glitch-free summit. Though R4bn will be made available in terms of the agreement, the apparent payment gap is about R10bn in total.
The standoff with the municipality stemmed from a longstanding issue of salary disparities between Joburg employees and those in other metros. A benchmark process conducted in 2016 revealed that Joburg local government workers were underpaid when compared with their counterparts in other cities. The settlement offer indicates: “The city is to commit to [the] payment of a minimum of R1.2bn, up to a maximum of R2bn, by March 2026. [The city will also] commit to [the] payment of a minimum of R5bn, up to a maximum of R6bn, by July 2026. [The city will further] commit to [the] payment of R4.1bn by July 2027.” While it is unclear how much of the R4bn has been diverted from critical water and roads projects in the capital expenditure budget, the city will need to account to the Auditor-General.
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Sisanda Mbolekwa at Sunday Times (subscriber access only)
- Read too, Billions shifted to stop union shutting down G20 summit, at The Citizen
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