He was looking forward to his looming R200 annual salary increase - which would have helped him finish his half-built two-roomed house - but he was shocked to get an inexplicable R500 salary cut.

The man, who cannot be named due to fears of victimisation, is one of more than 40 security guards who received unexplained salary decreases two months ago.

Now 16 of the security guards affected by the salary decreases have lodged a case of unfair labour practice with the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).

They spoke to Sowetan and showed us pay slips which showed their company, Isidingo Security Services, a Durban-based security company, dropped their hourly rates from R19.72 to R16.41 - way lower than R20, a proposed minimum wage rate.

They guard Transnet's rail network in the Hammanskraal, Petronella and Pyramid areas, north of Pretoria, mainly preventing cable theft.

One of the security guards is a married father of four who has lay-byed building material and is now struggling to pay off the account. His monthly salary went down from R4100 to R3600 at the end of September, ironically that's the month he normally gets his salary increase.

"I was looking forward to getting R4377, as our increases were due from September but I was shocked to find out my salary was cut without any explanation at the end of September," he said.

Although he admits he still struggled to do much with his R4100 salary, the cut has worsened his situation.

Speaking to Sowetan outside a tiny shack he shares with his wife, he said he now can't keep up with monthly payments of two clothing accounts which require R300 a month each," he said.

"Each and every month I skip paying one of the accounts because I now can't afford to pay them both."

His four children live with his mother-in-law due to space constraints in their home in North West.

His wife, a cleaner, covers most of the grocery needs for the family but they struggle to ensure that their children, two boys and two girls aged between eight and 15, have pocket money throughout the month.

Isidingo's Cobus du Plessis promised to comment but had not commented by the time of going to print.

The matter was set for a conciliation hearing on November 5 but Isidingo didn't send a representative, leaving the CCMA to escalate it to arbitration.