City optimistic bus service to resume soon

CITY officials, including City Manager Sibusiso Sithole met with the Head of eThekwini Transport Authority, Thami Manyathi, Mandla Gcama, owner of Tansnat and other Tansnat officials as well as union representatives this morning to discuss the city-wide bus strike.

Employees were assured that the remaining 250 employees who have not been paid their December salary and bonus, would be paid before 5pm today, 13 January 2016. The City has already processed the payment of 750 verified employees. Sithole said the City had been forced to intervene and not just be a bystander to the bus strike.

“This issue affects communities which was why we had to intervene. The final payments are being made. Leadership at the various depots will let us know if any employee has not been paid for some reason and we will address the matter,” he said.

The buses are expected to be back on the road once all the payments have been processed.

To prevent a re-occurrence of late payments of salaries, the City and an Independent Administrator will be working with Tansnat to ensure that the finances of the bus operation are managed properly and worker salaries prioritised and paid timeously.

The processes to form a Municipal entity to effectively run the bus service are moving ahead.

Employees were given the opportunity to raise their concerns during the meeting which were addressed by City management. Among their concerns was confirmation that all employees would be paid by the end of the day and payment of their January salaries.
A number of employees commented at the end of the meeting that they were satisfied with the outcome and were happy that the City intervened to address their issues.

The Municipality will inform commuters once the bus service is fully restored and we apologises for the inconvenience caused.