Tshwane buses remain suspended amid row over working conditions
Commuters in Tshwane remain stranded amid the continued stalemate between the management of the city’s bus service and employees.
The workers are accusing the city of not adhering to occupational health and safety regulations.
On Tuesday, bus drivers affiliated to the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) downed tools over working conditions.
The suspension of the bus service has left thousands of commuters stranded across the city.
Tshwane spokesperson Lindela Mashigo has accused bus drivers of abandoning shifts without giving reasons.
"To this end, the city has not received any formal grievance from the bus drivers. The strike has affected a customer base which gets services from 160 buses on weekdays.
"The city deems the abandoning of posts as an illegal action and intends to deal with the absconding employees through the municipality’s labour processes. The city has received claims of intimidation from bus drivers who do not align themselves with the stoppage underway and would like to denounce such acts."
However, Samwu deputy secretary Valentine Matlala says allegations that workers are aggrieved over wage issues are misleading.
"This has everything to do with workers' health, we are talking issue of occupational health and safety. Management is aware of that because we had a meeting in the past two weeks and management was made aware of that.
"They promised to resolve the issue, until such time that management comes then workers will know whether to go and work or they cannot be able to work on the tools of trade availability."
Mashigo says the city has issued a 48-hour ultimatum to drivers to return to duty.
"The ultimatum was sent to the SAMWU regional office with the expectation that the worker’s union would direct its members to fulfil their work obligation.”
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