GroundUp reports that municipal workers in the struggling Amahlathi Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape have not been paid for May.

The salaries of 260 employees were due on 25 May, but according to the municipality’s chief financial officer, Lubabalo Manjingolo, the May salaries will not be paid until mid-June. He hopes that the June salaries will be paid in the first week of July, when the municipality will receive its annual grant from the National Treasury. The municipality has a history of failing to pay employees although managers have been paid huge travel allowances. When the municipal workers were not paid their February salaries, the municipality made a credit arrangement with Pick n Pay in Stutterheim for the workers to access food vouchers and Manjingolo said that facility was still open if workers were willing to make use of it. However, workers have rejected that offer. Workers’ representative Thembela Magwangqana indicated that they have been asking the provincial Treasury to intervene. “There’s illegal use of funds but no one is taking responsibility. If it was a junior official who misused the municipality funds, letters of suspension would be flying by now,” he claimed. Community leaders have called for the municipality to disband. Eastern Cape spokesperson for Cooperative Affairs and Traditional Affairs, Mamkeli Ngam, said: “The situation at Amahlathi remains a cause for concern for the department and we would like to see it resolved. We call upon the leadership of the municipality to work together and find a solution to its problems.”

• Read the full original of the report in the above regard by Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik and Johnnie Isaac at GroundUp

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