The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) fully supports its affiliate, the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) in calling on the North West and Gauteng provincial governments to ensure that workers at Northwest Transport Investment (NTI) are paid their outstanding salaries in full immediately.
COSATU is deeply angered by reports submitted to it by workers at NTI that 14 months’ worth of wages are said to be outstanding. We are furious that despite agreements to pay workers this month this has still not happened days away from Christmas. This is unacceptable and is nothing short of theft of workers’ hard-earned wages.
Workers at NTI have borne the brunt of mismanagement and lack of proper oversight on the state-owned bus company for far too long. Financial mismanagement has plagued the entity for years. Finally, in 2022, the entity was placed under business rescue with Thomas Samson as the business rescue practitioner (BRP). However, it quickly became apparent that Samson had no interest in turning the entity around and making it sustainable as he failed to account for the funds government injected into the company and workers’ salaries went unpaid for months on end.
COSATU’s militant affiliate, SATAWU, petitioned the High Court to have Samson removed as the NTI BRP. In November 2024, the High Court ruled in SATAWU’s favour that Samson be removed. But instead of bowing out gracefully, Samson appealed the ruling, once again wasting taxpayers’ money meant to rescue NTI for his personal mission.
SATAWU and the workers were vindicated when the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria ruled that Samson is not fit to hold office and must vacate his role as BRP of NTI. This is a victory that workers have not been able to savour as their salaries remain unpaid even as Christmas quickly approaches. This is terribly unjust as workers have families to take care of and cannot continue to suffer as the two provincial governments continue to twiddle their thumbs and not exercise proper oversight on NTI, and ensure workers are paid millions of rand in outstanding wages.
COSATU will urgently engage the Minister of Transport, Barbara Creecy, to intervene to find a permanent solution for NTI and simultaneously put pressure to ensure that workers are paid what is due to them immediately.
The Federation will also initiate discussion at Nedlac regarding the tightening of business rescue processes as BPRs increasingly go rogue and hold companies they are meant to turnaround hostage while siphoning off funds.
Issued by COSATU
Zanele Sabela (COSATU Spokesperson)
079 287 5788 / 077 600 6639
