“Borehole operators” say they haven’t received salaries

Mopani District Municipality’s (MDM) borehole operators said they have not received their wages in months.

They say they were promised a monthly stipend but some operators have not received anything since last December.

“Some operators received their salaries in February but some of us are still unpaid,” said one operator who spoke on condition of anonymity.

MDM’s spokesperson, Neil Shikwambana said the operators were told from the start that they will be working as volunteers in their respective villages.

“They were told that they will be working on a volunteer basis. And yes we did promise them a monthly stipend but we are currently faced with a challenge because the number keeps increasing every month.

We have paid those who appear on our system while we are verifying the others,” said Shikwambana. He added that the verification process takes time and cannot be done overnight.

“We are working with councillors and indunas to verify these volunteers before we can make a payment,” he said.

The unpaid operators threatened to go on strike if their salaries are not paid.

“We wanted to go on strike earlier this year but the Executive mayor, Nkakareng stopped us.

This time we are not going to listen to anyone unless our salaries are paid in full. We work very hard, from Monday to Sunday,” said the operator.

He added that they have not registered to vote and will not vote in the upcoming local government elections.

“What is the use of voting for people who care less about us, maybe those who are paid will vote” he said.

“Tzaneen has 152 borehole operators, Giyani 64, Greater Letaba 76, Maruleng 44 and Ba-phalaborwa 8, but they have only paid 105 people.

This is not fair we have families to feed,” he concluded.