By Teboho Moloi
BETHLEHEM — The Dihlabeng Local Municipality spent more than R2 million on staff overtime in just two months in 2025, council has heard. The municipality paid R1.24 million in November and R1.18 million in December for overtime.
The payments were approved after a divided council vote at a sitting held at the Bethlehem Town Hall on Thursday, 29 January 2026, following a submission by Executive Mayor Tseki Tseki.
Of the 35 councillors, 24 voted in favour of approving the payments, while 11 opposed the item. Speaker Nthabeleng Mofokeng called for a vote after debate.
Mayor Tseki attributed the overtime largely to ageing and failing infrastructure, which he said results in frequent, unplanned emergencies.
“Asbestos pipes burst at any time. When that happens, we must respond immediately to prevent losses. The same applies to sewage blockages — we cannot postpone,” he said.
He acknowledged that staff shortages also contribute to overtime but stressed that the situation remains unplanned. Tseki said the municipality is still aligning its staff structures with national municipal staff regulations.
“It is a continuous process. We are not alone — many municipalities are still working on it,” he said.
Opposition parties, the Democratic Alliance (DA) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), voted against the item, arguing that overtime costs would drop if vacancies were filled.
DA councillor Eric Motloung said the municipality lacks consequence management and does not have an approved staff establishment, worsening the overtime problem.
“Key pressure points are water works, sewage, electricity, water services and traffic. It is worrying that the traffic department has already spent three times its allocated budget,” he said.
Motloung blamed poor planning and understaffing for what he called runaway overtime spending, urging the mayor to prioritise filling vacancies to prevent staff fatigue and declining service delivery.
EFF chief whip Mojalefa Vilakazi said efforts to adjust overtime through the corporate services committee had failed. He alleged that some senior officials and ruling party members benefit from overtime arrangements.
“There is a real need to employ more people. The municipality has a huge backlog because posts are not being filled,” Vilakazi said.
He further claimed that only those close to top management benefit from overtime.“The solution is simple: advertise posts across departments and hire skilled, qualified people,” he said.
One Response
I’d rather not say. But the situation is worse than stated in the article. The last time posts where filled was in 2021. Since then, employees pass on, go on pension, find jobs elsewhere and some are fired. The situation in the municipality stinks. The reason why the staff establishment has not been approved is because those in higher management have changed the staff establishment to suit their comrades. Nothing is being in line with the staff regulations. The mayor is talking kak… And the mention that other municipalities are going through the same process is a pure lie. Salga said that Dihlabeng was the only municipality in Free State that did not comply with the Staff Regulations. The Mayor and the MMC of corporate services have recently secretively hire their girlfriends as temporary employees. While the municipality runs to court to try to find the 256 temporary employees illegal. Another thing delaying the approval of the staff establishment is because the councillors have noticed that they have fallen out of favour and want to jump ship from the political office into administration. There are critical vacant posts in the municipality that could be filled, as they have been there, eg, Manager HR, Manager LEGAL, UNIT MANAGERS X2, Manager TOWN PLANNING, Manager RISK… Most of these posts have been vacant for some time now, and are deemed important, but have not been filled. Waiting for comrades maybe. But people are acting continuously in those vacant positions. Some people have been acting in positions for over 5 years. The Mayor and his comrades are just deceiving the public and its employees. Employee moral is at its all time low.
There is so much more I can talk about, but kuyafana nje.