Service delivery fears grow after Joburg wage deal
· Citizen
The ANC in the City of Joburg didn’t hand out party T-shirts to influence crucial voters in the upcoming local government elections.
It used ratepayers money – R10.3 billion of it – for a pay deal with the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu).
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Is that an extreme interpretation of what should merely be normal employer-employee relations?
Consider what Samwu’s provincial secretary, Mpho Tladinyane, had to say to his members.
“Workers must use their vote as a weapon to defend their interests. They must reject those who seek to undermine their livelihoods. They must reject those who have demonstrated, in practice, that they are intent on reversing the gains that workers have fought for and secured.
“Whatever workers do, they must reject the DA. Its record is clear. Its actions are consistent. It does not stand with workers. It stands against them.”
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Of course, the DA’s Helen Zille is the biggest threat to the ANC possession of the City of Gold and, naturally, Tladinyane and the comrades were miffed that the DA has vowed to fight their pay hike, which the DA believes is excessive.
Zille’s response made a good point: “If Johannesburg goes bankrupt, the workers will feel it very directly when salaries cannot be paid at all.”
The reality is that, to pay this particular Peter, the city is going to have to rob the Paul of service delivery… which is appalling to begin with. So, don’t expect your potholes to get fixed quicker, if at all.
Don’t expect water to come out of your taps all the time, nor your electricity to stay on.
Like the innumerable parasites who leach off the rest of those in government by not paying for their municipal services, Samwu seems to believe the goose can lay endless golden eggs.
It can’t. And one day everyone relying on those eggs will go hungry.