Samwu implores ANC to rein in ‘cowboy’ Godongwana 

The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) has asked ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula to intervene after finance minister Enoch Godongwana directed that its wage deal with the City of Johannesburg be cancelled.

Samwu president Nkhetheni Muthavhi told the Sunday Times the workers’ patience was wearing thin.

“We have written to the SG [secretary-general] of the ANC; we are expecting that he will respond and we can meet,” Muthavhi said. “He better respond very soon because we don’t have time, and this matter will go beyond their calculations if there is no positive response.”

He implored Luthuli House to rein in Godongwana, suggesting he had gone rogue. “They must talk to their deployee in government. They must know when to act and when to say things.”

Muthavhi said this was not the first time the ANC had upset workers.

“When we were going towards the previous national and provincial elections, they released a circular that they are not going to fill the positions and want to cut down in government. Look at the results. Workers ask us ... is this the ANC that we are saying they must vote for?

When we were going towards the previous national and provincial elections, they released a circular that they are not going to fill the positions and want to cut down in government. Look at the results. Workers ask us ... is this the ANC that we are saying they must vote for?

“We are telling them, ‘Let’s try to engage the ANC; if they behave as if we are not partners and don’t engage us, we will see.’”

This week, Godongwana wrote a scathing letter to Johannesburg mayor Dada Morero warning the city to halt an “illegal” R10bn wage deal it had agreed to with Samwu, saying the city was essentially bankrupt and could not afford it.

The deal was first struck in 2016 after workers said a benchmarking process showed they were being paid significantly less than their counterparts in other municipalities. A “politically facilitated agreement” was signed to back-pay the workers. The deal has been contested multiple times in the courts, especially under previous DA administrations, with the city citing unaffordability. However, the Morero administration agreed to implement the deal.

Muthavhi condemned Godongwana’s position as “very wrong” and claimed the finance minister’s actions were part of a scheme by the DA and the National Treasury to undermine workers.

“There seems to be a synchronised attack on this agreement that was reached in Johannesburg and they are calling it a ‘halting of the payment’,” he said. “But this thing was not agreed on yesterday; it was finalised in 2016 but has not been implemented.”

Muthavhi said the politically facilitated agreement was not a ploy to milk the city’s coffers but to deal with an injustice of the past. “What the Treasury is doing now is maintaining the status quo and saying it is good for one employee who is a general worker at Pikitup to earn more than somebody who is placed at Johannesburg Water.”

He warned that the ANC would be the biggest casualty of “this cowboy style of Godongwana’s” as workers would push back.

Muthavhi criticised the SA Local Government Association for not rising to the occasion and playing its role in the matter.

“They should have stepped in long ago. They should have stated that this [wage deal] is long overdue and ensured that it is implemented.”

We’ve had similar benchmark and back-pay situations in Tshwane in 2019; in Ekurhuleni we have implemented it, as well as Mangaung at a particular point. Samwu is an affiliate of Cosatu, which is part of the tripartite alliance with the ANC

Muthavhi criticised the South African Local Government Association too (Salga) for its role in the dispute.