Pretoria - The SACP in Tshwane has expressed support for the ongoing unlawful strike by municipal workers affiliated to the SA Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) amid threats by the City of Tshwane to fire more workers striking over salary increases.
Since the strike began two weeks ago, the municipality has dismissed at least 93 employees.
However, city manager Johan Mettler, who condemned an incident where an employee was shot and hijacked shortly after completing a shift on Saturday evening in Montana, said: “We will not cower in the face of intimidation by thugs. If the perpetrators are found to be our employees, they will be booted out of the employ of the City.”
SACP district spokesperson Mpho Mogakane said: “The district unequivocally stands in solidarity with the striking workers of Samwu and supports their genuine demands for the outstanding 3.5 % and 5.4 % wage increments.”
He said the SACP also condemned “the DA’s targeted assault and the City’s fascist intention to dismiss more than 2 000 workers summarily, linked with the DA’s long-held plans to depopulate the labour force, ultimately to save the City money by creating unemployment”.
Mogakane called on the ANC caucus to table a motion of no confidence against Mayor Cilliers Brink for “administrative malfunctions”, such as an adverse opinion by the Auditor-General report, the City’s failures to pay Eskom and Rand Water, and its failure to resolve the Hamanskraal water crisis, among other issues.
Meanwhile, the Public Service and Commercial Union (PSCU) yesterday entered the fray by calling on Brink to guarantee the safety of workers reporting for duty amid the strike.
The union said it represented a substantial number of emergency service and administrative staff in Tshwane.
According to the union, the statement by “the mayor propagating a wage freeze is irresponsible and disturbing”.
“The PSCU will not accept any desperate proposals that will further erode emergency services’ morale and income. The PSCU expressed severe irritation with the ongoing pronouncements, hinting that City employees will ultimately have to pay the price for the City’s financial problems caused by widespread maladministration and corruption.
“Apart from the latest shocking proposal to freeze employees’ salaries, the mayor has failed to demonstrate he can safeguard employee safety due to the ongoing strike,” the union said.
The PSCU further said it would stand in solidarity with other unions against Brink and his plans to undermine the collective agreement that guarantees City workers a salary increase.
“Any insistence on this trajectory and for the safety of our members in the emergency services and administration, we will have no choice but to withdraw our members until their safety and that of their families is guaranteed,” the union said.
City spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the City filed the salary and wage increases exemption application at the South African Local Government Bargaining Council on August 10, 2023.
“The exemption application will be heard at the Bargaining Council between the City and labour unions Imatu and Samwu on August 23, 2023.
“The City’s application is anchored in irrefutable evidence of its financial position, which is the main reason why there was no budget appropriation for salary and wage increases for the 2023/24 financial year,” Bokaba said.
Pretoria News