ActionSA in Gauteng has urged the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) to stop using the workers’ protest action in Pretoria for fighting political factional battles.
It said the strike was placing workers and residents’ lives and livelihoods at risk and danger.
This comes after an employee at the City of Tshwane was shot at on Saturday evening while responding to a call of duty in Montana. He was also hijacked a municipal vehicle he used that evening.
He was then rushed to the hospital after the incident for necessary medical attention. It is suspected that Samwu strikers were behind the shooting.
It is alleged that a group of Water and Sanitation municipal employees were on duty when they were harassed and attacked by a group of unknown individuals.
ActionSA’s provincial chairperson, Funzi Ngobeni has raised concerns about the ongoing violent, illegal and unprotected strike by Samwu. He said some of the 93 strikers who were dismissed are likely to be breadwinners.
He said they will not tolerate the genuine frustrations of workers being used by compromised ANC-aligned Samwu leaders that also want to politically sabotage the Tshwane administration.
“The Samwu leadership should be held directly responsible for their dismissals,” he maintained.
Ngobeni alleged that Samwu members have accused some of their leaders of selling-out workers in pursuit of their self-interest. Some leaders are accused of accepting promotions to senior positions.
“There is a voice recording doing the rounds supporting these allegations,” he said.
Ngobeni said these were some of the frustrations that workers are now being exploited for factional battles in the union. He indicated that the battle was costing employees their jobs and affecting the service delivery negatively.
However, Ngobeni stressed that one of his major concerns was that some shop stewards from the City of Joburg were part of the unprotected strike and have been quoted threatening to render the City of Tshwane “ungovernable”.
“ActionSA will write to the City Manager of Joburg to explain to us why the City of Joburg Labour Relations Department approved the ‘time off’ for Joburg Samwu Shop steward to attend the march that turned into an illegal strike.
“We believe that such an approval certainly goes against the main collective agreement,” he said.
He said it was not usual for an employer to approve “time off” for shop stewards to participate in another municipal march, unless the union was taking part in a protected strike.
Furthermore, Ngobeni said they will consider their options, including reporting Samwu to the Department of Labour after the City of Joburg has responded to their letter.
Politics
