Unmasking merger problems from employees’ perspectives: A case of the disestablished Aganang Local Municipality, South Africa

Abstract

Background: Aganang Local Municipality (ALM) was disestablished, and its municipal area was amalgamated into Blouberg Local Municipality, Molemole Local Municipality and Polokwane Local Municipality on 03 August 2016. The municipality was disestablished with a view to optimise the financial viability of municipalities in the Capricorn District Municipality. This development brought about challenges in a variety of areas as the move meant merging of the disestablished municipality to the other three municipalities.

Aim: This article explored the underlying human resources management problems that emanated from the disestablishment of ALM. The guiding question for this article was what are some of the salient human resource management challenges that emanated from ALM’s disestablishment? In addition, what lessons can be drawn for future municipal disestablishment exercises?

Setting: The setting for this study was the Polokwane Municipality, South Africa.

Methods: A qualitative approach, with interviews being the major data-collecting instrument, was applied.

Results: A key finding of this study is that there is a general dissatisfaction among staff from Aganang Municipality who were moved to Polokwane Municipality (PM) because of disparities in remuneration between them and their counterparts working for PM.

Conclusion: A major recommendation proffered in this article is that all human-resource-related issues need to be ironed out with staff members of the disestablished municipality before they are moved to other municipalities. This assists in minimising labour disputes in the merging process.