On Monday morning, irate municipal infrastructure workers stormed the J.B. Marks municipal offices and dumped buckets of human excrement on the floors and furniture.

The municipality closed its doors because of the unbearable stench, mess and the fear of health hazards.
The workers told the Herald that this was the last resort after most of them have had money deducted from their salaries since April.

‘For three months, some people have taken home R15, some R50 and some R100 in wages. The municipality has never told us why this was happening,’ said one of the workers.

Fed up. Outrage after ‘turd’ month of questionable deductions.
Photo: Selogile Leshage

S.J. Mokhothu (53) is one of the aggrieved workers. He says, despite his 30 years of faithful service to the municipality, he was surprised to find that there was just R100 in his account when he tried to withdraw money at the bank.

‘This has been happening for the past three months. I may as well leave because all the strength and effort I have put into this work is going to waste. I have a wife and two sons (aged 20 and 9 respectively) who all depend on me. I am even afraid to go home to Taung this weekend because there is nothing to offer to them.

Another worker who didn’t want to be identified told the Herald that he is in debt. ‘None of our cars, rent or furniture has been paid because of this mess. There is no food for my children. I don’t know what to tell my wife,’ he said.

The workers were also angered by their overtime money. ‘For close to ten months, they have been promising to pay our overtime money. I have just received R74 for two weeks of overtime. How is that possible?’ said one woman who showed the Herald her payslip.

‘We have been complaining for three months but no one is listening to us. We want our money before the end of this week.

We will continue to dump human waste inside this municipality if our money is not paid. We will even close down the N12. We never wanted to take this action. We resorted to this because no one was giving us any answers. If they cannot even pay our salaries, we fear for what will happen to our pension funds,’ said another worker.

Another group complained about the unfavourable conditions they have to work in. ‘The infrastructure vans are not roadworthy and their licences expired in 2016. The people demand service delivery but we risk our lives with these vehicles. There are also no tools to perform our work and we haven’t received our uniforms,’ he said.

Heaps of human waste were dumped in front of a memorial plaque of Dan Tloome, the former workers’ rights activist and founder member of the ANC Youth League.
Photo: Selogile Leshage

This was a result of an overpayment, says the mayor’s spokesperson

The mayoral spokesperson, Victor Boqo says the technical services personnel were protesting over the money that was deducted from their overtime for the month of May. At month-end in June, the finance department deducted the overpayments and returned them to the municipal coffers.

‘The senior managers and supervisors of all the affected workers informed them in advance. I can also confirm that they all received their normal salaries; only the money that was overpaid to them was deducted,’ he said.

Boqo added that the acting municipal manager (MM) has met with the workers. He said the cases of all those claiming not to have received their overtime will be verified through the submissions of their overtime claims. ‘The MFMA (Municipal Finance Management Act) is very clear that the municipality must reclaim any money it is owed within the same financial year. The municipality will be closing its books for the current financial year on 30 June.’

Boqo stressed that, under normal circumstances, any employee who receives an overpayment must immediately contact the human resources department and notify them of the discrepancy.

Municipal offices reopened on Wednesday

After the municipal offices were closed on Monday, they reopened as normal on Wednesday morning.

‘The municipality regrets any inconvenience this might have caused to the public. No service delivery has been compromised and all workers are back to their working stations as normal,’ he said.

Human waste in the corridors leading to the CFO’s office.
Photo: Selogile Leshage