MEC for Transport and Logistics Kedibone Diale-Tlabela has blasted business rescue senior manager Thomas Samons for the chaos that are reigning at Northwest Transport Investment bus company (NTI).
On Monday the company’s workers at the Waltloo branch of the company abandoned their duties in demand for salaries which have been unpaid for close to four months now.
NTI has branches in both the Gauteng and the NorthWest provinces.
Besides the Waltloo branch, other branches of NTI are at Mabopane, Temba and Pretoria CBD.
It has emerged that Thomson was actually appointed by the Northwest provincial government to rescue NTI from certain collapse, yet his critics are of the opinion that he has made matters worse.
“Thomas Samons is an appointee of the NorthWest Provincial government and we will communicate our dissatisfaction with him to that government,” said Diale-Tlabela on Monday evening when she emerged from a meeting between unions representing workers and NTI management.
“We think Samons must go as there are things that he was supposed to do but failed to implement them,” said Diale-Tlabela.
“He is not helping to solve the challenges that NTI is faced with, and he is actually undermining and disrespecting the NorthWest government,” complained Diale-Tlabela.
The MEC pointed out that Samons was supposed to be at the meeting at Waltloo on Monday but failed to pitch up.
She said they as the Gauteng government had shown that they were prepared to play their part in resolving the chaos at NTI but Samons continues to undermine their efforts.
The MEC revealed that instead of prioritising workers above all else, Samons saw it fit to pay for diesel from the budget of the workers’ salaries, thus leaving them penniless for close to four months.
“We are calling for the termination of the contract between NTI and Business Rescue Practitioners because as it stands, we continuing to enrich individuals at our expense, this as the money purported to be paying for diesel does not actually go there yet salaries are not paid,” said Diale-Tlabela as she cited the fact that in 3 months Samons has failed to come up with a tangible rescue plan.
Addressing the aggrieved workers at the Waltloo branch, Diale-Tlabela said Samons must just produce the rescue plan and get out of the NTI affairs.
According to the MEC, Samons apparently does not want to leave NTI but would rather get old there and that such a scenario can’t be allowed by the people and government of Gauteng.
“Let’s work together to defeat the devil and save NTI,” said the MEC to the workers.
“We plead with you, there might be changes, there might be defeat and there might be a lot of things that will be painful because we are not used to them,” she said.
“But in the interests of ourselves, the NTI and the people of Gauteng there are things that must be done so that there would be law and order,” she said.
The MEC then pleaded with the workers to continue with their duties as the government won’t be able to pay them if they continue to abandon their duties.
In response, General Secretary of the South African Workers Union Lebusa Mamaregane said that although they as a union welcomed the MEC’s presence at the meeting, he hoped that the MEC was not using the situation as a way to canvass for votes but as a genuine opportunity to address the plight of NTI workers.
According to Mamaregane, the Gauteng government is a client of the NTI.
On Monday bus commuters were left stranded as the workers refused to carry out their duties due to unpaid salaries.
Some workers told Tshwane Talks as to how being unpaid for four months has affected them.
“We are hurting inside and due to our ages, some of us are on chronic medication and our health is getting worse due to the chaos here at NTI,” said one worker.
“My child has been suspended from school due to failure to pay tuition fees for 3 months now,” complained another worker.
Diale-Tlabela assured workers that after entering negotiations with their union SAWU, she will come back to them after 10 days to give them an everlasting solution to their labour issues.
In response to the above -mentioned allegations against Samons, his lawyers sent the following statement to Tshwane Talks:
“It has come to our attention that the BRP has been lambasted in the press and various media forums.
The press releases are aimed at discrediting the BRP by making spurious, vexatious and contrived public statements as part of a continued stratagem of derailing the business rescue process.
For the purpose hereof, these allegations are specifically denied with the contempt that they deserve.”
The BRP is taking advantage of workers. First time coming to our deposit waltloo he promised us that he will do his best to rebuild the company for it is down on its knees and continued to assure us that he will get rid of corruption that is in NTI ,only to find out he is looking out for his pockets and other creditors ,he does not care about the wellbeing of employees.inthe process we’ve lost our brothers and sisters due to stress and illnesses ,our kids are being expelled from school because of non payments of school fees, others lost their homes,cars been repossessed and families being broken all because of his selfiness. He is arrogant and disrespectful,he doesn’t consider workers and their well-being,he is disrespectful to other parties such as unions , management, North West and Gauteng government and the passengers as well including us workers so we plead to the court to remove him with immediate effect we’ve been through enough this past two and a half years.