BLOEMFONTEIN, Free State — The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (SAMWU) has strongly condemned the National Treasury’s decision to withhold 13.5 billion rand in equitable share grants from multiple municipalities, warning that the move will only deepen the ongoing crisis of delayed municipal worker salaries and collapsing local service delivery.
According to Dumisane Magagula, a SAMWU spokesperson and official, the Treasury’s strategy of freezing funds over unpaid municipal debts and broken repayment agreements is fundamentally irrelevant to solving the root causes of municipal failure. Instead of aiding accountability, the withholding of funds has directly triggered severe cash flow problems, leaving workers facing mounting debt, accrued interest, and profound financial uncertainty.
The impact is already dire across several provinces. Magagula highlighted that a municipality in the Northern Cape has gone without paying salaries for six months, while two Free State municipalities have failed to pay workers for two months. Other affected areas have seen wage delays stretching up to three months. Beyond basic salaries, the financial freeze has caused third-party payments to collapse, resulting in lapsed pensions, medical aids, and insurance policies for vulnerable municipal employees.
“The same pilot is still flying,” Magagula stated, criticizing the lack of consequences for ongoing municipal mismanagement. He argued that if the National Treasury truly sought accountability, it would mandate corrective measures against corrupt managers, demand the resuscitation of lapsed medical aids, and require the appointment of competent financial personnel. Instead, he noted, the Treasury’s conditions narrowly focus on paying Eskom and water boards, ignoring the broader collapse of revenue enhancement and the lack of equipment needed for service delivery.
The crisis extends beyond the Free State, with municipalities in the North West, KwaZulu-Natal, and Limpopo reporting similar struggles. Magagula emphasized that communities are the ultimate victims, as municipalities lack the diesel and equipment necessary to deliver basic services, plunging indigent and elderly residents who rely on public services into further hardship.
In response, SAMWU is pushing for concrete interventions. While a meeting with the Free State provincial government is scheduled for August 6, the union has expressed skepticism over the lack of action regarding Section 139 provincial interventions or Section 154 support investigations. Furthermore, SAMWU has requested a joint meeting with the National Treasury, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), the Department of Water and Sanitation (DWS), and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA).
Following a memorandum submission during a march on July 9, only the DWS has committed to a meeting, leaving the union to consider mass mobilization and legal action. However, Magagula warned that legal interventions carry the unintended consequence of municipal equipment being attached and sold to private entities, which would only accelerate the privatization of public services.
Ultimately, SAMWU is calling for a complete overhaul of the municipal funding model. Magagula pointed out that the current factors used to calculate the equitable share grant, such as population metrics and economic viability assessments, are no longer yielding positive results. The union is advocating for collaborative contributions to a new white paper to ensure a sustainable, long-term solution that protects both municipal workers and the communities they serve.
