Officials at municipalities that have collectively splurged billions on overtime blame cunning employees determined to inflate their pay to the point of cynically abusing the system.
In one example, an official said: “If [workers] are called to attend to emergencies ... they drag their feet during working hours, only to extend the shift ... so they can rake in those hours of additional pay at a higher rate.”
Six metro municipalities splurged more than R3.3bn on overtime in the 2023/24 financial year, according to the latest available financial statements of at least six of the country’s eight metropolitan municipalities, studied this week by the Sunday Times.
According to South Africa’s labour law, overtime is capped at no more than 10 hours a week, or 40 hours a month.
— Senior municipal source
The financial statements reveal the DA-run City of Cape Town spent the most on staff overtime in the past financial year, paying its workers R1.15bn for putting in extra hours.
Cape Town MMC for corporate services Theresa Uys attributed the huge overtime bill to staff putting in extra hours to deal with natural disasters, among other reasons. “Certain maintenance programmes can only be executed at weekends due to access to road infrastructure, [and] cannot be performed during normal weekdays,” she said.
There were also “preventive acts” that needed to be carried out — such as preventive fires, to limit possible wildfires — and these required overtime work.
Uys said in Cape Town overtime was monitored “by comparing actual overtime to the biometric clocking time, to prevent any false claims”. The highest individual monthly overtime recorded by the city was 156 hours — way above the legislated 40-hour stipulation.
Hot on the heels of Cape Town was the City of Johannesburg, where workers claimed R946m in overtime. The City of Tshwane — run by a coalition comprising the ANC, ActionSA and others — claimed third spot in the overtime splurge, paying its workforce R601m.
Tshwane said it would introduce a cap on overtime in April. Municipal officials — who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal — said the huge spending on overtime pointed to abuse of the system by cunning employees hell-bent on inflating their pay.
“The culture of overtime is a sophisticated scheme to fleece the municipality, and workers have perfected this heist. We don’t have accurate monitoring systems in place. And besides, where human beings are involved, people will find a way to beat the system.”
Another senior municipal source in a different city lamented what he described as workers “gallivanting” during working hours, only to attend to technical faults and other related matters after hours.
“If they are called to attend to emergencies [such as] an outage or burst pipe, you’ll find they drag their feet during working hours, only to extend the shift to long after 4pm so they can rake in those hours of additional pay at a higher rate.
“If you try to clamp down on overtime and insist that tasks are completed timeously, they do what they can during the shift and immediately down tools at 4pm, with no care, only to tell you ‘we were told not to work overtime’, leaving the streets flowing with water from a burst pipe repair.”
The official said workers were taking double the time needed to complete a task. “Essentially, they have put a proverbial gun to our heads.”
In March Ekurhuleni finance MMC Jongizizwe Dlabathi cut the metro’s overtime budget by half after its workforce of 16,000 claimed R216m in overtime in the first quarter of 2025 — with projections suggesting the spending on overtime could shoot up to R1bn by year end.
Disgruntled Ekurhuleni metro cops, protesting against the overtime cut, blocked the busy R21 freeway that leads to the OR Tambo International Airport during peak-hour traffic.
The Mangaung metro recorded overtime spending of R246m in the previous financial year, with the auditor-general flagging this as one of the reasons for its qualified audit opinion. The auditor-general also found the municipality had no approved internal policy to regulate overtime, stating that VIP bodyguards — employed in the offices of the political principals — were one of the largest contributors to the excess overtime.
Nelson Mandela Bay paid more than R415m in overtime to its workers in the 2023/24 financial year. The auditor-general, in her report, found this had ballooned 168.8%, or R260.87m, over the past seven years. The largest overtime claims from Nelson Mandela Bay came from its safety and security directorate. The claims had increased from R45m to R146.2m over the same period, growth of 221%.
Nelson Mandela Bay spokesperson Sithembiso Soyaya said several factors had contributed to the increase in overtime spending. “Essential services, such as water, electricity, sanitation and safety, required round-the-clock emergency responses,” he said.
Further, deteriorating infrastructure needed increased maintenance and repair. Staff shortages also resulted in employees working overtime to meet service demands. Soyaya said the executive was working on an overtime policy, though the deadline for its adoption — September 30 2024 — had been missed.
According to South Africa’s labour law, overtime is capped at no more than 10 hours a week, or 40 hours a month.
South African Municipal Workers’ Union general secretary Dumisane Magagula said workers were not to blame for the huge overtime splurge because they could not work overtime without an employer instructing them to do so.
“They don’t have enough staff to carry out the duties during the normal hours, then they have to extend the number of hours to meet their targets. It’s not the workers’ fault,” he said. “Unfortunately, there is no way that in an employer-employee relationship, you will work without workers being paid overtime. They want the work to be done during overtime, but when it’s time to pay they raise challenges.”
The Independent Municipal & Allied Trade Union (Imatu) echoed Magagula’s sentiments. “There are people working excessive overtime because it is necessitated for service delivery, as there is an urgent need and shortage of manpower,” said Imatu president Keith Swanepoel.
As much as abuse of overtime is strongly condemned, municipalities are mostly performing essential services. For reasons such as vandalism to infrastructure, cable theft and others, municipal workers have to work overtime
— South African Local Government Association
While there might be people manipulating the system, it was management’s responsibility to curb overtime costs, he said.
“Municipal workers should not budget on their overtime, and this was part of the problem that a vast number of employees were getting used to. There are some people, where work that could take place during working hours is left in abeyance until knock-off time, where only then will they respond to repairs.”
City of Johannesburg spokesperson Nthatisi Modingoane said its spending on overtime was dictated by circumstances. While overtime was regulated by labour law, questionable “gentleman’s agreements” were being entered into by employees and their supervisors.
“Overtime is not centralised ... it depends on the specific operational needs of the department or municipal entity. The city uses a pre-approval process to determine the need, cost and resources required. However, there are always exceptional circumstances that might require overtime, such as unplanned events,” he said.
The South African Local Government Association said the excess overtime situation was concerning, though there were often valid reasons for the extra hours.
“As much as abuse of overtime is strongly condemned, municipalities are mostly performing essential services. For reasons such as vandalism to infrastructure, cable theft and others, municipal workers have to work overtime,” it said.
However, the association said its hands were tied as overtime was regulated through the Basic Conditions of Employment Act.
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