Sheriff takes Madibeng municipality vehicles over payment dispute

Vehicles belonging to the Madibeng Local Municipality were attached by the Sheriff on Thursday after the council failed to pay a service provider.

This was confirmed by the spokesperson of the North West-based municipality.

“The Sheriff of Brits did visit our premises to attach a number of vehicles over money owed to a certain service provider. There was a delay in payment… as we had an internal query with the file. We were able to have the matter sorted‚ engaged the Sheriff and payment was made. So all our vehicles are back on the road‚” said spokesperson for the municipality Tumelo Tshabalala.

But Tshabalala could not provide the amount that was owed by the municipality and the actual name of the service provider who was ultimately paid.

TimesLIVE earlier spoke to the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) in the province about the financial situation in the Madibeng Local Municipality.

“They have taken the trucks because they are saying that the mun

icipality is owing service providers. They took trucks and cars – a total of seven vehicles. These vehicles were taken from the municipal workshop in Brits.

“We are very disappointed with this municipality. Last week‚ the workers were paid late. We are supposed to be paid on the 25th of each month but most of the workers only got paid on the 26th [of January]‚” said Zukiswa Vezi‚ provincial treasury of Samwu in North West.

Vezi said the trucks taken as part of the seizure by the Sheriff were used to deliver water some of the communities within the municipality. This was the biggest concern for the union.

On the issue of salaries‚ Tshabalala said there was a technical glitch which affected the time at which the workers received their pay.

“The allegation that the workers were not paid on the 25th is also unfounded. The background of the matter is that there was a technical glitch experienced with the salary file which led to the delay in payment of salaries in the usual early hours of pay day. We briefed the workers about the delay‚ however despite the delay; we were still able to pay salaries on the 25 January 2018‚” Tshabalala said.