SAMWU WELCOMES TSHWANE’S DECISION TO HONOUR SALARY AND WAGE COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT

November 5, 2025 adminPress

5 November 2025

The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (SAMWU) notes and welcomes the official statement by Deputy Executive Mayor and MMC for Finance, Cllr Eugene Modise, confirming that the City will not pursue an appeal or review of the South African Local Government Bargaining Council (SALGBC) award regarding the 3.5% salary increase due to municipal workers for the 2021/2022 financial year.

This decision, announced on 4 November 2025, is a commendable demonstration of responsibility, and SAMWU congratulates the current administration for finally coming to its senses. By respecting the ruling, the City is not only upholding the integrity of the collective bargaining process, but is, more importantly, beginning the crucial work of reversing the past injustices of the DA-led administration which created the financial and labour mess that workers and the City alike find themselves in.

SAMWU fought tirelessly to expose the deceitful attempts by previous administrations to evade their contractual obligations. We are vindicated by this development, and we stand ready to engage constructively with the City’s management on the practical, convenient, and sustainable modalities for the immediate implementation of our members’ outstanding 3.5% salary increases. As a mandate driven organisation, we will, throughout this process, be guided by our members.

This victory is a seismic reaffirmation of the sacrosanct principle of collective bargaining in the local government sector. When a collective agreement is signed in good faith, it is legally binding, and no political administration, regardless of its ideological leaning or transient financial claims, has the authority to unilaterally undermine it. This moment serves as a powerful deterrent to any future employer that seeks to discard workers’ contractual rights under the guise of affordability, especially when such claims are rooted in poor governance and political expediency.

For our members, this payment is not just overdue increases, but also it is a vital lifeline. Workers have endured years of punishing economic conditions such as skyrocketing fuel costs, punitive interest rate hikes, and inflationary pressure on essential goods, while watching their wages stagnate due to political malice. The City’s failure to pay these legally due increases has subjected our members to financial hardship, debt, and compromised living standards. This back-pay is an urgent injection needed to alleviate that sustained economic pain.

However, we are not celebrating at this point. We will only celebrate once our hardworking members have been paid their full backdated increases. The City is simply doing the right thing and complying with a legal and binding collective agreement. We urge management to now focus all efforts on ensuring these payments are made sooner rather than later.

This is a critical step towards genuine labour stability in Tshwane. We demand the City demonstrate this renewed commitment to workers by prioritising the payment. The same maturity that the City is now showing on this ruling must also be extended to address the issue of the unfairly dismissed 41 employees. These employees were dismissed for demanding these very same increases. As the Union has been vindicated on these increases, we firmly believe that this is the moment for the City to end the gross injustice and immediately reinstate all 41 workers. Compliance must be total, not selective.

Issued by SAMWU Secretariat
Dumisane Magagula, General Secretary, (076 580 4029), Nkhetheni Muthavhi, Deputy General Secretary (082 526 5224) or Papikie Mohale, National Media Officer (076 795 8670)