Disgruntled City of Tshwane Meter readers have made an urgent appeal to Lotus Atterridgeville Saulsville Civic Association ( LASCA) to help them get insourced by the Municipality as permanent workers.
Presently the Meter readers are working as contractors under a company of labour brokers known as Rihati, which falls under the well-known Ntiiso Consultants company.
The Meter readers have indicated that they have been working for over 7 years in their positions but they are being exploited and underpaid by Rihati company.
They explained that they have had on-one meetings with City of Tshwane Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya and also engaged her during public participation meetings whereby they pleaded to be absorbed into the City of Tshwane’s work force, but their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
“It is due to an act of corruption by the powers that be that we are still working as contractors after so many years of service to the City of Tshwane, that is why we have now enlisted the services of LASCA and its leader Tshepo Mahlangu to help us get the Municipality to absorb us as its own fully-fledged workers,” said one Meter reader.
“Please don’t take us for granted, we are humbly asking you as the public to also help us in this regard,” he said.
Mahlangu joined the protesting Meter readers at Tshwane House, the headquarters of the City of Tshwane Municipality on Monday 5 June 2025.
“We are here at Tshwane House, which is a crime scene due to the many shenanigans happening here and we are demanding that the City of Tshwane must immediately employ the Meter readers and pay them decent salaries because at the moment they are being exploited by labour brokers Rihati and its parent company Ntiiso Consultants,” said Mahlangu.
“We no longer want to see Rahiti and Ntiiso in the City of Tshwane and the Meter readers must report directly here at Tshwane House and be given the tools of trade, and in that way they will be able to work freely without being chased away by members of the community and this scenario will result in them giving us as the community accurate billings instead of estimations,” said Mahlangu.
“We want Meter readers to be insourced by the City of Tshwane Municipality at the beginning of July 2025 and this is not a request but a demand,” he said.