City of Tshwane says overtime cap won’t stall emergency services

The City of Tshwane’s introduction of financial management measures capping overtime will not stop the municipality from providing services in the event of emergencies, spokesperson Selby Bokaba said yesterday.

This follows a fire earlier this month at the Brakfontein substation that affected power in Eldoraigne, Raslouw, Rooihuiskraal North and Wierdapark for over 10 days.

Political backlash over budget cuts

Opposition leader in the city, the DA’s Cilliers Brink, accused the mayor of decreasing the budget for regional service delivery in her adjustment budget last month.

This was after the circulation of a letter by the city manager on the capping of overtime in service delivery after hours and over weekends.

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Initially, the city said the report was true and that it was an internal communique.

Now, Bokaba has said Tshwane has taken note of misleading messages circulating on social media platforms by some community leaders, purporting that there will be prolonged power supply outages due to the city’s overtime curb, which came into effect on 1 April.

“These messages, which are devoid of any truth, further suggest that the city has taken a decision to compromise service delivery through its changes to the management of overtime.

Compliance with labour laws

“It should be put on record that the adjustments to overtime hours were based on repeated findings by the auditor-general that the city was regularly paying several employees more than 40 hours of overtime.

“This is a contravention of the Labour Relations Act, which stipulates that overtime should only be limited to 40 hours per month,” he said.

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Bokaba said the city’s resources were also strained, which had prompted it to make hard choices concerning overtime, without compromising the delivery of services.

“Through the regional operations and coordination department, the need for changes to the management of overtime was extensively canvassed with the regional directors for electricity.

Extra hours allowed for emergencies

“The teams agreed that limiting overtime to 40 hours per month excludes overtime that could not be avoided due to an emergency as defined in Section 3.6.2(ii) of the overtime collective agreement,” he said.

Bokaba said while some of the critical functions of the municipality are restricted to 40 hours of overtime, more hours will be granted if it is an emergency involving power outages, water leaks or pipe bursts, sewer leaks, roads, stormwater and community services.

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