Ephraim Keoreng
20 May 2009
Workers in the labour intensive programme, Namola Leuba, in Gaborone have complained that the Gaborone City Council has cut their wages. According to the complainants, when they started they were paid P360 for 22 days of work it was later increased to P600, where they were working from 6 am to 6 pm, clearing the bushes and cleaning roads and streets.
However, the workers complain that the wages have since been cut down to the original P360.
In an interview last weekend, one of the workers, Julia Baitsile, who was among workers who had temporarily laid down their tools to express their unhappiness with the GCC decision, said that "supervisors who used to be paid P1 080 were now being paid P8 28.".
Morula, (which covers Gaborone West) Village Development Committee chairperson, Rhoda Sekgororoane said that it was a pity that the council has cut down the wages of the workers who have been very busy cleaning the city and ridding it of filth.
"When you look around Gaborone, you will see how beautiful it is, thanks to their efforts," she said.She said that as a result of the wage-cuts some of the workers have been evicted out of their rented houses as they are failing to pay rentals while others cannot pay their furniture bills.GCC spokesperson Seeletso Lekgaba confirmed that they had cut down the wages.
"We did that when we reduced the working hours, from the 12 to six hours a day," she said.
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