North West Provincial Legislature on North West Transport Investments’ (NTI) legal appeals affecting bus workers

 

The North West Provincial Legislature Portfolio Committee on Community Safety and Transport Management chaired by Hon. Freddy Sonakile would like to express its deep concern and outrage following reports that 14 employees of North West Transport Investments’ (NTI) bus companies have taken their own lives due to months of unpaid salaries.

“Families are suffering, homes are being repossessed, and in some cases, workers have reportedly died of hunger, while a legal impasse continues to drag on,” stated Hon. Sonakile.

The Committee is firm in its view that the entire province cannot be held to ransom by one individual, NTI’s first Business Rescue Practitioner, Mr Thomas Sammons, whose repeated appeals have stalled progress.

“This legal circus cannot continue while workers and their families bear the brunt of the crisis. We insist that urgent measures must be facilitated to ensure that salaries are paid without further delay, irrespective of the ongoing court processes. Workers continue to serve the public, and their dignity must be restore,” said Hon. Sonakile.

The Committee has resolved to call on Premier Lazarus Mokgosi, together with the MEC for Community Safety and Transport Management, MEC Wessels Morweng, and MEC for North West Provincial Treasury, MEC Keneetswe Mosenogi, to amongst others urgently meet with NTI’s Acting CEO, Dr Ben Dikobe and the current Business Rescue Practitioner, Mr Mahomed Tayob, to devise immediate strategies that will allow salary payments to flow while the legal case continues. The Committee also noted that workers cannot remain the collateral damage of protracted litigation and government indecision.

Furthermore, the Committee calls on the North West Provincial Government to:

• Vigorously defend the current business rescue process in the courts;
• Pursue cost orders against Mr Sammons to deter further frivolous appeals; and
• Demonstrate its seriousness by providing full support to the workers during this transition.

The Committee demands that the Premier and MECs provide formal feedback within 14 days on the concrete steps being taken to ensure that workers are paid.

In parallel, the Committee will also engage with the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) to establish progress on the case it previously referred regarding NTI’s affairs.

“Failure by government to act with urgency will render it equally complicit in the suffering of employees, especially since it was government that invoked voluntary business rescue in the first place,” stated Hon. Sonakile.

The Committee will continue to monitor this matter closely and will not hesitate to hold both the Department and the entity accountable. The lives and livelihoods of workers must come before any legal theatrics.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of South African Government.