Cllr Jacqui Uys – DA Tshwane Spokesperson on Finance
By Cllr Jacqui Uys
DA Tshwane Spokesperson on Finance
Today, the ANC-led City of Tshwane announced an agreement with labour unions to pay billions in backdated salary increases going back to 2021 and implement a 3.5% salary increase from 1 March 2026.
In 2021 the DA-led government took the decision not to pay salary increases to ensure that the City would be able to pay salaries to workers and deliver services to residents.
This decision was made as Tshwane faced a R4 billion cash deficit in the aftermath of the ANC’s illegal bid to place the City under administration.
The ANC overturned that decision today, and they’ve done this at the expense of services delivery.
The savings used to pay for this deal with the unions is at the expense of employing less frontline service delivery employees.
The City’s basic service delivery departments are already severely understaffed and facing:
a 42% vacancy rate in the Electricity Department; and a 47% vacancy rate in Water & Sanitation Department.
They do this at a time when there is a looming water crisis.
The City faces 40% waterlosses because water leaks run for days and weeks, and Rand Water is threatening to throttle water supply due to high demand.
The ANC government is calling the decision to implement the agreement “unavoidable”, but this is not true.
This matter could have been taken on review to the Labour Court as the DA did in a similar matter in 2023.
We put residents first and won that case, ensuring that billions went towards service delivery.
But the ANC-led coalition squandered this precedent because they made unaffordable promises to union bosses at residents’ expense.
Leadership is not easy, and it is clear based on the harmful decisions the ANC makes in Tshwane, that they might be able to prop up a government, but they are certainly not able to lead one.
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