Mogale City municipal manager, Makhosazana Msezana has filed an urgent application with the Labour Court to reverse a recent write order against a group of 61 public safety traffic officers.
The officers have since 2013 mandated their unions, the National Union of Mineworkers (Num) and the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) to fight this labour matter on their behalf which recently resulted in the Labour Court granting the sheriff of the court a writ order to freeze the municipal bank accounts and attach some of the assets to recover R48 million owed to the workers.
Msezana in his application to overturn this has, on an urgent basis, notified the court of his intention for the matter to be heard on October 17.
In the affidavit seen by The Star, the municipality cites the sheriff of the court in Krugersdorp as the first respondent, Num and Samwu as the second and third respondents.
“Kindly note that the applicant intends making an application to the above honourable court in terms of the Labour Relations Act 66 on October 17 for an order that the warrant of of execution dated, October 4, issued by SA Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC) and the notice of attachment dated, October 6 under case: GPD031901 be set aside or stayed pending the determination of the applications pending before this court, under case number: JR 218/19,” the municipal manager argues.
Furthermore, Msezana wants the court to consider lifting up any attachments and freezing of the municipality’s bank accounts.
The applicant is also ordering the first respondent to immediately uplift any attachments made because of the above writ of execution and to reimburse the applicant any monies paid to second respondent’s trust account or any account due to attachments, ordering third respondent to return to applicant any goods attached and removed as a of the writ execution,” the municipal manager says in the papers to the court.
However, reacting to the application, Samwu accused the municipality of having failed to comply with the rules and standing orders of the court, which resulted in the court striking the matter off the roll.
“The officers were granted an arbitration award in 2019 which was later certified and became a writ of execution. The municipality was subsequently with a writ of execution which resulted in the freezing of the municipal bank account and other municipal assets were attached to recover R48 million owed to the affected members of the traffic department,” a union representative said.
Msezana said the order had resulted in service delivery concerns as the attachment of the assets was detrimental to functioning of the municipality.
At the centre of this legal drama is the unfair labour practice dispute brought by Samwu to the SALGBC after the municipality failed to honour its obligations towards contract workers in 2013.
Samwu argued that the municipality was refusing to pay its members in accordance with their employment contracts on leave pay and other provisions.
Secretary of Samwu in Mogale City, Zama Sigabi, said the municipality must stop violating the rights of its workers and pay them.
“Samwu is concerned of the attachment of the municipal bank account and other moveable assets because of the municipality’s failure to comply with the certified award issued by the SALGBC in favour of its members in Mogale City Public Safety division. The municipality failed to comply with the rules of the court in terms of filing a review application of the awards issued in 2019 timeously,” Sigabi said.
Sigabi said this was not the only writ order made against the local government in Mogale City.
“It must be noted that, this is not the only writ of execution that the municipality has applied for its stay, and Samwu views this as pure arrogance and refusal to address worker issues even after the legislation that governs our country dictates so,” Sigabi said.
This matter is expected to be heard by the Labour Court sitting in Braamfontein on October 17.