Impendle ordered to pay outstanding salaries within 48 hours

KwaZulu-Natal Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Rev. Thulasizwe Buthelezi has ordered Impendle Local Municipality to pay all outstanding employee salaries within 48 hours, after repeated failures to meet payroll obligations.

Directive and concern from the provincial department

Buthelezi instructed the municipality’s administrator to ensure that unpaid salaries are settled within the 48-hour timeframe. He expressed serious concern about the non-payment, saying the practice undermines workers’ dignity, municipal functionality and service delivery to the people of Impendle.

“It is morally unacceptable for workers to work and not get paid. In this regard, I have directed the administrator to ensure that all outstanding salaries are paid within 48 hours,” Buthelezi said.

The department said it remained committed to strengthening consequence management, restoring stability in local government and safeguarding uninterrupted service delivery.

Staff protests and recent history of non-payment

Last month municipal employees said they had gone four consecutive months without pay, a situation that prompted the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) to call for urgent provincial intervention. Frustrated workers brought traffic on the Q127 road to a standstill during a protest; the Q127 is the main access route to the Impendle Economic Zone.

Workers affiliated with Samwu downed tools, saying they could no longer endure the financial hardship caused by the municipality’s failure to pay them.

Financial and governance challenges

The latest salary crisis followed an earlier failure to pay councillors and staff in January, which prompted Buthelezi to conduct an oversight visit to the municipality to address what he described as a deepening financial and governance crisis. The municipality was placed under administration in June amid concerns about its financial and governance challenges.

Buthelezi attributed the municipality’s inability to meet basic obligations to the depletion of municipal funds.

Equitable share transfers and fiscal discipline

In July, the municipality urged the National Treasury to withdraw its decision to withhold equitable share grants from poor-performing municipalities. The National Treasury revealed that it was temporarily withholding the July 2026 equitable share transfers to certain municipalities to instil fiscal discipline.

The Treasury said the move was intended to ensure public money allocated to municipalities is properly managed and to prompt action on unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure. Equitable shares are funds that the National Treasury unconditionally transfers to provincial and local governments for administrative costs.

Mayor Kho Dlamini said the municipality would not survive without equitable shares.

The situation in Impendle remains under close watch by provincial authorities as the 48-hour deadline approaches.