The South African Municipal Workers’ Union (SAMWU) notes and joyously welcomes the landmark judgment handed down in the Northern Cape Division of the High Court in Kimberley on 23 May 2025 by Acting Judge Olivier. This pivotal ruling follows an urgent application vigorously pursued by SAMWU in response to the !Kheis Local Municipality’s shocking and indefensible failure to pay its dedicated employees their rightful salaries since February 2025. The urgency of our application reflected the immediate and severe financial hardship faced by our members, who were left unable to meet their basic needs or support their families.
In a decisive and unequivocal ruling, Acting Judge Olivier ordered the !Kheis Local Municipality to immediately pay all outstanding salaries for February and March 2025 and, crucially, to ensure that all future salaries are paid timeously as they become due. This judgment marks a significant and hard-won victory for our municipal workers, who have endured immense financial strain, psychological trauma, and striped of their indignity due to the persistent and unacceptable failure of municipalities to honour their most basic obligations.
For far too long, the local government sector across South Africa has operated with a systemic disregard for employment contracts and labour laws. This widespread neglect is most starkly evident in the recurring and often prolonged delays in salary payments, compounded by the alarming and equally destructive failure to remit essential third-party contributions such as medical aid, pension fund payments, and funeral policies, many of which are left months, if not years, in arrears. This creates a devastating ripple effect, jeopardising workers’ access to healthcare, their future retirement security, and even dignified burials for their loved ones.
Such practices constitute a flagrant breach of signed employment contracts, as explicitly affirmed by the Court, and impose an intolerable and unjust burden on workers and their families. These deductions are not optional, they are essential to workers’ daily survival, financial stability, and long-term well-being. The High Court’s unequivocal ruling reinforces the principle that financial mismanagement, however severe or entrenched, can never justify the non-payment of salaries, which are an inalienable and fundamental right of every employee.
SAMWU commends the High Court for its incisive recognition of the devastating human impact of delayed salaries on workers and their families. As powerfully illustrated in this case, many employees face the real threat of repossession of their hard-earned assets such as vehicles and homes, are plunged deeper into spiralling debt, and are rendered unable to meet basic needs, including feeding their families and keeping their children in school, due to these unlawful and unconstitutional delays. The Court’s stern rebuke that such conduct “should be frowned upon” highlights the gravity of this breach of trust and the critical importance of ensuring timely remuneration.
This ruling sends a clear, powerful, and unequivocal message to all municipalities across South Africa that they cannot shirk their legal and ethical responsibilities to their workforce. Workers must not, and will not, be expected to bear the consequences of poor governance, chronic financial mismanagement, or administrative failure. It serves as a stark reminder to municipal leadership that accountability for the welfare of their employees is paramount.
This judgment is not merely about one municipality, it sets a powerful precedent, warning municipalities nationwide that the chronic non-payment of salaries will no longer be tolerated as a mere administrative oversight. SAMWU calls on all affected municipalities to immediately honour their financial obligations and rectify all outstanding payments and arrears without further delay. This includes not only salaries but also all outstanding third-party deductions that have been unlawfully withheld.
Our members and workers in municipalities across the North West, Free State, Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and indeed all provinces facing similar violations, should draw strength from this monumental victory. SAMWU will actively leverage this judgment as a legal precedent to hold all delinquent municipalities accountable.
As a Union, we remain committed to eradicating this entrenched injustice and will urgently assess all municipalities with arrears, initiating further court action where necessary to ensure justice is served and workers’ rights are fully upheld.
Enough is enough.
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)