Ipelegeng employees rue e-wallet payment
Tumelo Mouwane | Wednesday August 30, 2017 17:16
The council took the decision after they ran out of funds for service fees at the BotswanaPost, which used to disburse payments to hundreds of employees under the programme in the town.
In a heated argument on the issue during a recent LTC meeting, councillors, both from the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) and the Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) said the move was ill informed and people were not consulted. However, the council continued to implement the initiative.
One of the employees at Pitikwe ward, Onalenna Sharp, said the initiative is ‘straining’ and they cannot access their full pay since Auto Teller Machines (ATM) do not avail coins.
“We used to access our money effectively at the post office; the queues were long but it was reasonable. We are now forced to stay all day on endless queues trying to complete the process and access our money.
“We cannot access some of our money. The ATMs don’t disburse coins so sometimes we fail to meet our budgets because of bank charges, which we were not prepared for. If you work once in Ipelegeng it means your coins left will be gone for good. Where are they going?” Sharp wondered.
Another employee in Woodhall 1 ward, Omphemetse Moilwa, said the initiative causes inconvenience especially when one loses their cellphones.
“The idea could have worked better if we were engaged rather than the council imposing it on us.
If I lose my phone today on payday it means I will have to follow another procedure of replacing the sim card. I will need more money to do that rather than just going to the post office and accessing the funds,” she said.
Lobatse Town deputy town clerk, Oganne Gontse however dismissed the allegations that the programme is frustrating the beneficiaries and cited that the initiative has been “going smoothly”.
“Yes we had few glitches but generally the programme is going well. We have sorted out everything concerning cellphones and sim cards. The money is paid to all employees on the same day at the same time. “Yes we agree that the queues become lengthy that is a challenge that we are also taking into consideration but on issues of coins not being able to be accessed, we have informed beneficiaries that the money belongs to them. It does not matter how long it takes for them to access the money. The bottom line is that the money is theirs,” Gontse said.
The Council’s chief finance and development planning officer, Billyboy Siabatho dismissed allegations that the beneficiaries were not consulted.
Siabatho said Ward Development Committee’s (WDC) chairpersons were consulted.
“We adequately consulted with the Ward Development Committees and they appreciated the idea. People should take into consideration that the post office service fees were running quite high and we did not have money for the service,” he said.