SAMWU: The voice of the municipal workers
Jabu Mashamaite was elected as the Regional Secretary of the South African Municipal Workers' Union (SAMWU) on 14 September in Polokwane and he says he is more than ready to take on the challenge.
Here is Jabu Mashamaite, Regional Secretary of SAMWU, Fentswe Machochoane, Portia Mametja, John Legodi and Lucas Lebelo.
LIMPOPO – Bosveld met with Mashamaite and the rest of the Mogalakwena SAMWU team at the Mogalakwena Municipality on Monday where they shared their views regarding issues relating the municipality.
Mashamaite said they are pleased to announce that an agreement regarding the issue of temporary workers was reached on 13 October. “We are not at liberty to discuss the agreement yet, but we can say that SAMWU is happy with the outcome,” Mashamaite said.
He further said that they are not happy with the developments regarding benchmarking. As per Mashamaite the former Acting Municipal Manger, Patricia Nake, told them in May of this year that it will be addressed within three weeks, but now months have already passed and this issue still bears no fruit. T
he SAMWU team spoke through one voice when they told Bosveld that if the workers’ salaries are not adjusted accordingly by the end of November they will down their tools again. The municipality still bears the scars from the previous standstill earlier this year when the workers downed their tools for more than four weeks, as they demanded that the benchmarking of salaries according to municipalities with the same grading scale be implemented.
Mashamaite said it is simple: “No money, no service.”
Another issue that the SAMWU team are concerned about is the vacant positions and the numerous positions that are being filled by acting managers. “The workers are under a lot of pressure due to the shortage of staff,” said Mashamaite.
As SAMWU we would also like the municipality to review the Organisational Structure as Mogalakwena has grown since the structure was first established years ago. “The municipality is responsible for service delivery in town and in all 179 surrounding villages, but we have just over 700 personal. We need to recruit more employees, to relieve the pressure and to supply top quality services to the people,” Mashamaite added.
He further said that he is concerned as the staff morale at the municipality is currently very low.
“SAMWU fully supports the Political Management Team under the leadership of Mayor Andrina Matsemela, but we will always stand up for the workers and their rights as we are their voice,” Mashamaite strongly concluded.
The Divisional Head of Communications at the municipality, Malesela Selokela gave the following comment regarding the above concerns: “It is unfortunate that the processes of resolving the issue regarding benchmarking took longer than everyone has anticipated simply because there is a lot of work to be done.
However, processes to resolve this matter are underway. Regarding vacant positions, for the past two months the municipality have been advertising vacant positions almost every week or bio-weekly. This tells me that the leadership and management team picked up, that there are not enough personnel and it is being addressed.”
redaksie.bosvelder@nmgroup.co.za
