KNYSNA NEWS - Workers are demanding to receive salaries they have not yet been paid for work done as part of a WTW Civils contract in Knysna that was in motion before the company went into liquidation in November 2020.
In late 2019, WTW was appointed by Knysna Municipality to conduct the fixing, construction and paving of roads, with the project beginning in Ward 5, in Rheenendal.
The contract would eventually extend to a total of four sites apart from the one in Ward 5 – one in Ward 3, one in Ward 7 and one in Ward 8 – by November 2020. On 5 November 2020 employees contracted to WTW for the project were issued a letter informing them that the company was going into provisional liquidation and that all workers would be placed on compulsory leave until further notice.
If the workers' annual leave was depleted, they would be placed on unpaid leave.
At this point the workers had not yet been paid for work done in October, and they would not be paid for November or December. The projects were not yet complete, with only the Rheenendal site anywhere near completion.
"The site in Rheenendal was probably about 80 or 90% complete," said community liaison officer (CLO) Alberto Marbi. All work on each of the four sites ceased following the letter by WTW. "At the site in Dam se Bos (Ward 3), we only got so far as to begin groundwork on the road, and it was left in a state that was unusable, so a separate company had to come and level it out so that residents could actually use the road," said site CLO Siyabulela Kolanisi.
On 2 December 2020, WTW was officially placed under provisional liquidation by the South Gauteng High Court with Bennie Keevy, Margaretha Susanna Goodrich and Asma Abdool Gafaar Khammissa appointed as the joint liquidators. In the months since going into liquidation, the CLOs have been trying to get their salaries as well as those of the employees paid, even approaching Knysna Municipality to pay the outstanding salaries from the project's retention fund.
However, according to spokesperson Christopher Bezuidenhoudt, the municipality is unable to use the retention money to pay the salaries. "The retention money in terms of the contract should be held back for 12 months after completion. This is to secure contractual obligations and ensure defects are rectified," he said.
The municipality has aimed to assist the employees by forwarding their demands to the liquidators, but there's a hitch. "The liquidator should verify the employees' payment demands and confirm if the employees' claims are indeed correct," Bezuidenhoudt explained.
This statement was corroborated by DJ Kleynhans of Senekal Simmonds Corporate Lawyers, the liquidators' legal representation in the matter.
"Any payments in terms of the estate of WTW must be made in accordance with a confirmed liquidation and distribution account as set out in the Insolvency Act, Act 24 of 1936," Kleynhans said. It is the drawn-out nature of this process that is causing the delay.
The CLOs and employees are seeking to claim back R121 794 in unpaid salaries. "It was a difficult festive season for the employees and their families, because at Christmas the children expect a gift, but you can't give it to them," said Kolanisi.
"There is also the issue that we are still contractually bound to WTW so we can't even claim back UIF or seek employment elsewhere."
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