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Pretoria News reports that the cash-strapped City of Tshwane will disburse millions of rand to its estimated 25,000 employees this festive season as part of the payouts linked to a benchmarking agreement.
Apparently, the decision to settle the benchmarking payments was made last week and will be communicated to the unions and workers during the course of this week. The payouts will be in line with the decision to elevate municipality from Category 9 status to 10 by the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs in 2017. While the metro received a new ranking at the time, the salaries of workers were not adjusted accordingly. The payout decision comes on the back of concerns expressed by Mayor Randall Williams that the City plunged into a R4.4 billion deficit while under the control of the previous administrators. When he took office in November, Williams lambasted the administrators for blowing a R284m surplus left by the DA-led administration before council was dissolved in March. He bemoaned that the metro was in financial distress with a significant deficit of R4.4bn. Williams defended the decision to pay out the benchmarking monies, saying: “It is not a question about affordability. There were agreements that were entered into by the administrators and the then mayor Stevens Mokgalapa. For me it is very important that we honour legal undertakings and that we honour agreements.”
- Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Rapula Moatshe at Pretoria News
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