SAMWU members protested in Johannesburg on 30 January 2025 over the appointment of Helen Botes as the City of Joburg’s acting chief operating officer. Picture: Sphamandla Dlamini/EWN
This follows the signing of an addendum to the existing wage agreement between outgoing mayor Dada Morero and the South African Municipal Workers’ Union on the eve of the local government elections.
A R10.3 billion wage agreement, affecting an estimated 35,000 municipal workers, is likely to be one of the biggest challenges facing Johannesburg’s incoming administration.
This follows the signing of an addendum to the existing wage agreement between outgoing mayor Dada Morero and the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (SAMWU) on the eve of the local government elections.
The addendum seeks to clarify and fast-track the implementation of the controversial deal, which aims to address historic salary disparities among municipal workers.
But the multibillion-rand commitment has attracted strong objections from National Treasury over its affordability and legality.
SAMWU, however, is insisting that the incoming leadership must honour the agreement.
The big question is how the new administration will navigate this financial obligation while trying to get the city’s struggling finances and service delivery back on track.
SAMWU said the addendum signed with the city does not simply disappear with the departure of the current political leadership.
The union argues that the agreement is with the municipality as an institution and not with an individual mayor or political party.
It maintains that the wage deal is necessary to address long-standing salary inequalities affecting thousands of municipal workers.
“We have entered into an agreement with the City of Johannesburg in trying to address shortcomings of the city by making sure that we put mechanisms that will fund this particular PFA [Politically Facilitated Agreement] so that we see it through; it’s been many years that employees of the seat have been subsidising the City of Johannesburg.
“As of now on, we definitely know that this particular PFA is going to be a funded vehicle,” said SAMWU’s regional secretary, Thobani Nkosi.
Gauteng Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) MEC Jacob Mamabolo has also urged the incoming administration to honour the commitment.
But with National Treasury questioning the financial implications of the deal, the new leadership will face difficult questions about how it intends to fund the agreement.
The addendum, signed just before the elections, has effectively left the incoming administration with a major financial and labour relations issue to address.