Ntombi* has defaulted her residential rental payment for a second month in a row after her employer failed to pay her last two salaries on time.
Ntombi, who is raising two children, is one of more than 900 Translux and City to City employees who are forced to incur additional bank charges as result of their salaries being paid late due to cash flow problems at the state-owned company.
Autopax, a subsidiary of the Passenger Rail Agency of SA (Prasa), which owns the two bus services, has been experiencing financial difficulties, which have seen it struggle to pay salaries.
The May salaries, which were due on Thursday last week, had not been paid by late on Monday. April salaries were also paid three days after payday because of cash flow problems.
“My Wi-Fi router payment also had to deduct on my payday, now my children had to miss out on online education or I have to find another way,” said Ntombi.
She said she had to regularly pay additional bank charges due to all the missed bank debit orders owing to the late payment of her salaries.
“I can't even prepare proper lunch for my children for the days they have to be at school.”
Another employee, who spoke to Sowetan on condition of anonymity, said he was forced to negotiate with the taxi driver who transports his son to school as he did not have money to pay him.
“I am very frustrated, my debit orders bounce and go unpaid, which leads to bank charges and other additional costs due to having missed payments,” the man said.
He said since 2019, they always worried about their salaries coming on payday due to “the company being run like a spaza shop”.
“How do they send us a memo that says our salaries won't be paid on time only on the 26th of the month at 9pm, while we are supposed to get paid on the 27th?” he asked.
The state-owned bus company employs 932 employee and is in the process of shedding 301 jobs in a restructuring strategy, which seeks to make it sustainable.
Translux and City to City run a fleet of more than 500 buses, which operate in all major cities and towns, with most of their long-distance routes being between Gauteng and the Eastern Cape.
Prasa acting GM for corporate affairs Bane Ndlovu said Autopax continued to experience cash flow problems.
Ndlovu said the company's cost structures were too high due to a bloated workforce, among others.
“The company is in the process of being right sized, as well as the cost and company structures are being addressed,” Ndlovu said.
SA Transport and Allied Workers Union (Satawu) passenger bus national coordinator Solomon Mahlangu said paying salaries was a contractual obligation, which Autopax had violated on numerous occasions.
Mahlangu said Autopax had been relying on Prasa to pay salaries but due to the bus company's management “sleeping on duty” they only approached the mother company at the eleventh hour.
Mahlangu said Satawu believed that Autopax had reached a crisis point “and even if the company could be left with just one employee, these problems will still be there because they are management issues”.
*Not her real name
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